Graylings in the Mist

It was a Misty start on Sunday when me and Bri had a go for the grayling . We went to the spot he had done so well at last weekend , i was really looking forward to a bit trotting , but first with bellies rumbling we stopped off for a bit breakfast. After a sausage and egg roll and a latte , we were ready to go.

It didn't take long for the mist to lift and with it Brian  hooked the first of the day a fine fish that went a couple of pound .

I then lost a grayling  before hooking into something that just held out in the current , actually thought i might have snagged, up on a old sack or something , till it started to swim upstream then jump about, and eventually a nice big  grayling came to the net  .

a few wee fellaes followed , then it went quiet.

Though Brian managed to find a few nice fishlittle upstream in the afternoon. I gave the fly rod a go but , no luck on that front , must get on the vice and tie up some more bugs.

The mist returned as it began and the cold started to set in and darkness slowly began creep in so we called it a day.

Great fun , looking forward to next time!

November Grayling

Out today for my first trip of the Grayling season,  with all the rain of late I knew I would have to travel to the upper reaches of the river to find some clear water.After an hour or so drive I parked up at my spot and got my first proper look at the river, aye it was carrying a bit of extra water right enough but running clear, I had packed the fly rod as well as my trotting gear but in truth i fancied a bit of relaxed trotting so decided to leave the fly rod in the car.
George from the http://traditionalfloats.blogspot.co.uk/ made me some lovely floats last winter with this river in mind,  I've been so looking forward to fishing with them and today I would finally get the chance to put them to good use, one of them anyway!

 I headed down to a pool that gave me a few nice grayling last year and after two or three trots down and I was into a fish, not what I was looking for though, a little trout which was followed by one or two more of his pals before I found myself connected to the first Grayling of the day.

only a little one but i was pleased to land my first of the winter

the next Grayling was a different creature all together, what i call a line whistler, nervous moments as i drew him ever closer to the net, he went 2lb 4oz in the mclean.

if that was to be my last grayling of the day i would have went home delighted, but i seemed to have found a shoal of good fish, to cut a long story short i ended up with eight Grayling for the day with five of them between 2lb 4oz and 2lb 8oz, happy days!

some pictures in no particular order, a memory card full of grayling pictures gets a bit confusing as they all look the same!  

in truth i probably could have stuck it out a little while longer but with some prolonged heavy showers late afternoon i decided to call it a day around four, a great day and a big thank you to George for making me those lovely floats.  

        

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

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 .



 

something graylingy going on.

Col and I arranged to meet up with Scott from http://something-fishy-going-on.blogspot.co.uk/  on Sunday . Scott was after a grayling to add to his already impressive tally of  108 different species so far this year, quite an achievement i'm sure you'll agree, so we were keen for him  to add another species to his tally with any luck. To begin with the three of us started of trotting in the run where we had picked up fish from the week before, and it didn't take long for Scott to land the first Grayling of the day, the pressure was off!

from then on we all started to pick up a few grayling, great fun on a fine winters day

you again!

Grayling even manage to put a smile on my face!

sport slowed down a after a while so we split up for a while to try some different swims, where we had a few more grayling of various sizes and the odd out of season trout.

It was a pleasure to meet you Scott and I hope you catch some more of your target species before the years out.

  

single lady

I had Sunday afternoon free so thought I would pay the grayling burn a visit, as Col was saying in a recent post it's grayling have proved hard to find this year for some reason, maybe water quality? I don't know but recent spates have certainly cleared out a lot of the silt and on this day it was running low and as clear as I have seen it.

from the first pool I was pleased to land a nice grayling on a tan glister bug



   still some ice in the shade

my hopes were high in the next few good pools but I never got another touch, not that I was feeling too disheartened, just being on the river on a fine winter afternoon was enough for me, and ive got a feeling that the Grayling will put in an appearance again at some point. 

A Dose of the Trots.

On saturday me and Brian went west for a shot at the grayling. Despite having trotted for grayling many times , it was the first time i'd   done it  properly  with a centrepin reel, Brian on the otherhand has a good few years experience using his, so i was in good hands for any advice or help i would need.
When we arrived  just before 8am it was just light enough to see what we were doing and once tackled up we were trotting.

It didn't take long for Brian to bring the first grayling and then the second and third and the odd out of season trout  to hand, before i too got into some of the action, after a few initial teething problems i started to get the hang of it.

The sport tailed off an hour or so in , so we searched elsewhere in vain , before returning again, if anything the walk was a good opportunity to get the blood circulating again in our feet, in fact we regularly took breaks just to warm up , we were joined by a wee robin , looking for free food , he even had the brass neck to attempt to take maggots from my bait apron .

 We went on to take a few more grayling, the sport  seemed to come on in spells.

It had been a nice day on the river, and i now feel i little more competent with the centrepin, thanks Brian.