Monday 29 October 2012

Time for Grayling

One I managed to land
Back from Wales last weekend, and as promised I have been indulging in a bit of Grayling fishing, albeit only for a couple of days, although my intention is to do a lot more when I have the time. I ventured out on to the middle Eden with my good friend Geoff Johnston over the course of this weekend, and although we had to search for them we did eventually find fish, and when we did we had some good sport and encountered some decent sized fish too. Both days produced some serious interest from the Grayling about two hours before dark, however, they were not fully convinced about our offerings and they were being very cautious in their interest. We both encountered and lost quite a few fish and good fish at that, and I remember commenting to Geoff that I couldn't remember the last time I lost as many fish in one session. Some takes simply tightened the line as if they were just investigating the flies and although the first contact was solid and the fish were on, they were often not on for long.

Geoff on the Bugs
Many of you out there that fish regularly for Grayling will have encountered this before, I know I have, several times, although my success rate is usually higher when this happens, and even when the rod tip was raised as the flies traversed the stream to allow for better hooking, it was still difficult to keep them on.

As we have discussed before, Grayling can be much more accommodating after long periods of settled conditions and Sunday saw an early morning frost which can often be very welcome when Grayling fishing as they are certainly not uncomfortable with low temperatures, however as Geoff pointed out when we first arrived, this was the first frost for a while and therefore outside of the norm (so to speak) and until it becomes the norm it could make the fishing difficult, he was right.

Geoff returns a fish of 15 inches
However we were blessed with our fair share of sunshine throughout the day too, which helped to make the fishing very pleasant. Unfortunately we are now getting rain again, which will influence the conditions, but hopefully not too much for now as I have a group out this coming weekend. Time will tell.