January, grayling nymphs and other stuff.

For me this January's been a bit of a disappointment from a grayling fishing point of view, the last couple of Saturdays on my favorite borders stream have been pretty uncomfortable with wind, rain and rising water levels, deep wading isn't much fun either to be honest, unless you find a grayling or two that is and  that's proving to be easier said than done. Having said all that i'll be back for more punishment in February if conditions allow, as this river contains some fine grayling with 3lb plus specimen a real possibility.

another 2lb15oz and this one will be a cracker!

i was inspired to tie up a few new nymphs to try after watching tight lines on sky sports the other night, where they did a great wee report on a grayling competition held on the Welsh Dee.

peeping caddis

hends rainbow spectra dubbing nymphs in light violet

some on jig hooks

red holographic butt

cdc red tag type thing

first published in 1968 and just as good now, a great winter read.

welcome winter colour in the garden just now, witch hazel

A mid-summer nights Dream

As the rain batters of the window, the only angling inspiration comes from looking at photos from seasons past , and from there i felt inspired to tie a few flies at the vice. My mind was taken to fishing for trout in  the hot summer evenings , with this now in mind i decided to tie a few spinner patterns, these are particularly handy during the months the blue winged olive is on the water but also for olive upright and large dark olive spinners too during a rare mild May evening .

 

Our evening fishing normally should be well underway by Mid May, i look forward to putting these flies  to use and hope they prove sucessful when the spinners start to fall.

beauty and the beast

I booked today off work with a bit of grayling fishing in mind as the river looked to be dropping nicely at the start of the week, unfortunately rain yesterday and overnight had pushed  the levels back up and today when i peered over the footbridge i saw that the river was even higher than it was at the weekend! oh well i was there now so thought i may as well give it a try anyway.

rivets on the footbridge

 wading was more or less a non starter today so i methodically fished up the margins of  the pool Col got his big grayling from on Saturday, without an offer, the only fish i saw was a dead salmon on the bankside.

not a pretty sight

  i wasn't at all confident but thought i may as well give a big pool downstream a shot, where surprisingly after a few casts i hooked a grayling, not a very big grayling but her colours were bright and beautiful, i was  pleased to catch her.

i fished on with renewed optimism hoping to find some of her pals but that turned out to be my only fish for the day, never mind there's always next time and fingers crossed the river level drops a bit.

Slogging it out in the Borders

Fishing opportunities have been really difficult to come by off late with the atrocious weather we have been enduring  in the UK at the moment , so with river levels finally dropping, me and Brian thought we would make the most of the opportunity to wet a line on our favourite river . A fish or two would be nice but when we arrived and saw the river  our optimism was slightly jaded by the height of the river which generally doesn't fish so well when its high, but on the plus side it had good clarity .

While we tackled up we were  immediately faced with a chilling downstream breeze, three bugs and a egg fly tied to the point fly. In our first few pools due to the height of the water we could only fish off the bank but we drew a blank , then we decided to move to another pool , which was fishable and wadeable, we combed  the area thoroughly and methodically , in that time I managed to hook and lose a brace of modest fish , which was if anything encouraging  before we decided to rest the pool and return later.

We then tried an  area a few miles downstream , but again we drew a blank and our heads were starting to go down.
 After a roll and mars bar we mustered the enthusiasm to have another go. Eventually i had a take , and landed a wee grayling on my top dropper a pink beaded  wire nymph ,a small triumph and it just gave us that we bit of a boost to carry on.

Brian was next of the mark with the smallest grayling I've ever seen, again though despite it's size it gave us encouragement to carry on.

Eventually my spiral indicator straightened and i was into what felt like  a better  fish, it was confirmed when it rolled combing the surface with a big  red fringed  fin , revealing it was  a big male.

 It pulled the Mclean weigh net down to 2 1/2lb .  It put a smile on my previously tripping face .

What a sail! 

We tried hard for another as the light was starting to go, but there was no further action .It had been a tough day,  just hope the water gets a chance to drop by a foot or so for next time and perhaps the grayling will be more obliging .



 

filling up the nymph box

The last few nights Ive been stocking up my much depleted  nymph box with some simple patterns, some for the trout season ahead, but mostly bugs with Grayling in mind.

the ever reliable glister bug for our local burns

olive ribbed with chartreuse magic glass

wire nymphs with pink tungsten in various sizes, ive also tied a load of copper beaded ones for the trout season.

hares ear heavy weights to get down to where it matters

fluff on a hook, egg flies took some big grayling for us last year.

two or three wee black wire patterns for midge feeders

various forms of the pink shrimp

the weathers looking settled for a change so fingers crossed they might be put into action this weekend with any luck.  

blowing away the cobwebs

Cabin fever has well and truly set in over the Christmas holidays, we had hoped to get out for a grayling trip or two but with the constant wind and rain that's not been possible, on some days taking the dog out for a walk has been a thought to be honest, but then it is winter i guess. Anyway with the weather not looking too bad today Col and i decided on a wee coarse fishing session at Eliburn res.

 the rain still managed to put in an appearance

it took a while before our floats registered a bite, which turned out to be a lovely Roach to start of 2014

a few more Roach followed soon after the first and also an Ide

  

 after that some missed bites and long periods of inactivity before Col landed a Roach and another Ide

 so not the most productive of sessions but it was great to get out fishing again after a long month of no fishing.