Give me a wild grayling to a stockie rainbow or brown trout any day

What I have never been able to understand is the mass killing of grayling that took place in the past on some of our rivers where they were treated as vermin, it was certainly a very backward attitude. Now some of these same streams where grayling were considered vermin are nothing more than put and take rainbow and brown trout fisheries. Give me a wild grayling to a stockie rainbow or brown trout any day. We all have our favourite rivers, No doubt your choice of a favourite grayling venue will be different from mine. In Scotland for me, its the river Tay. Across in Wales I reckon the Dee, but in England it would be a difficult job for me to choose one venue from the many available. The Kennet, Dove, Ure, Hodder, Derwent, Wharfe, Frome and Swale to name just a few. All offer magnificent fishing for Thymallus thymallus in delightful surroundings. There is one thing that grayling will not tolerate, that is the slightest hint of pollution. Trout and salmon might remain in a stretch where the water quality has deteriorated even slightly in quality, but the grayling will quickly disappear. In my opinion they are the finest indicator of water quality in our rivers and streams. As I sit writing this article I am looking at a picture of a huge fly caught grayling that weighed in at 4-8-0 caught on a fly from Harrtrashet Lake in Swedish Lapland by Sven Perman of Lycksele Sweden. (see last month’s “First Cast”. Ed)On my last visit to Sweden I did get the chance to fish Harrtrashet Lake, where the highlight for me wasn’t catching a big grayling but being able to observe a black woodpecker. I couldn’t have had worse conditions for trying to catch grayling on the dry fly, with a cold northerly wind sweeping across the lake surface. I spotted two rises and lightly pricked one fish. In Sweden there are many lakes containing huge grayling some weighing 6lbs or more. I have not caught any grayling from still waters in the United Kingdom and for many years, I didn’t think they existed until reading Ron Broughton’s book ‘Grayling – The Fourth Game Fish’ (published by Crowood) where I was to learn about several still water grayling fisheries. On pages 36 to 43 Louis Noble writes about the species inhabiting not only Bala Lake in Wales (I have not fished this water though hopefully I will in the not too distant future) and several other venues which include Gouthwaite Reservoir in North Yorkshire, Loudsmill fishery in Dorset and Lymmvale in Cheshire. Poland, Austria, France, Italy and of course the Scandinavian countries of Sweden Norway Finland and Denmark have some magnificent grayling rivers and lakes including the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden where I have also chased the Lady of the Stream. Two fine Swedish rivers where I have had great success with grayling on the dry fly are the Vindelalven and Laisalven. These are magnificent rivers with gin clear water. In fact you can safely drink the water from these two rivers. Recently I was on a fishing expedition to the north of Sorsele to fish the Laisalven river, which is the largest tributary of the Vindelalven river. It’s fantastic grayling fishing in lovely surroundings and very easily accessible. Along the river bank you will find many fire pits with plenty of dry wood and kindling where its so easy to light a fire and have a brew. You will find some delightful half moon cabins with smoke extractors in place over the fire pit which are very useful when it rains. Other cabins can be found fitted with bunks, and they are free to use. There is no graffiti, no damage, no litter. It’s clean, green and beautiful. You will often meet other anglers around the fire pit which makes for an enjoyable break. Most Swedish anglers take along a small frying pan and kettle as they rate their fishing breaks and lunches very highly. A popular and traditional lunch is pancake (like Yorkshire pudding) with small bits of pork. The whole lot is dumped in the frying pan and warmed up then served with Lingum berry jam and a mug of real creamy milk like I had as a kid back in the 1940’s. Fishing the Laisalven river I had some of the most exciting grayling sport I could wish for. In fact it was some of the best I have ever experienced in all my years of angling, catching lots of good fish up to 2-8-0 also some very nice wild brown trout. Tackle used was a 9′ 6″ travel rod taking a floating 6 weight double taper line, 12 foot leader tapered down to a 3lb point with either a European 12 or a Superpuppan fly. My other fly patterns for the Lapland waters were – The Bo Special, a big sedge pattern with a green under body which is a good pattern on still waters, Sven emerger, Klinkhamer Special, Red ant and a Sven caddis. These make up my top seven patterns. It wasn’t all fishing. I was able to see the black woodpecker, This bird is quite rare. It’s all black, except for a red spot on its crown. Many ravens were seen and heard but the highlight of the trip was seeing the reindeer and moose. To be standing chest-high deep in a river fishing a dry fly for grayling and watching a herd of reindeer drinking is something special. On one occasion I watched a female reindeer with two young, then later on the same day I was able to photograph a cow moose with two youngsters. Back to grayling fishing in the UK I don’t deliberately set out to catch grayling until September, I feel the grayling needs a few weeks after spawning to get back in condition. I have experienced catching out-of-condition grayling when trying to catch brown trout during the may fly season on the river Dove. There are several ways of catching this delightful fish. Nymphing, wet and dry fly and bait using float tackle. The latter can be very worthwhile during the cold winter months when the fish are hugging the bottom and refusing to move for a nymph. The two outstanding baits are red worms and gentles. Grayling Society member Robert Goodwin tells me he has had some good sport when trotting with red sweet corn. If you plan to float fish with bait, check the rules first. Though most clubs do allow bait fishing for grayling after the trout season ends on September 30th. Tackle choice is quite simple, A rod of 11 to 12 feet in length is a good choice. I find the John Wilson Nomad 11ft, a telescopic rod from Masterline International, a good choice. It can be packed away in a ruckbag until needed. Should you arrive at your chosen venue to find it not suitable for fly fishing you can switch over to bait fishing where it is allowed. My reel choice would be a centre pin and the Young’s Trudex fits the bill. The reason for my choice of a centre pin is, I get a better presentation when trotting the stream. You will not get the same presentation when using a fixed spool reel and the choice of line is quite simple, all you need are some 50 yards of 3lb bs floating nylon line. I have found a cork on quill Avon float to be perfect for the job of presenting a moving bait. Try a float taking between 3 and 6 BB shot, depending on the weight required, to get the bait down on the bottom. We all have our own ideas on shotting patterns but more often than not I usually bunch the shot between 10 and 15 inches from the hook with a BB shot pinched about four or five inches from the hook. This will help prevent deep hooking. My hook choice is, as usual, a Partridge model Z2 in sizes 10’s 12’s and 14’s. The most often used hook size is a 12. I also crush the barb flat on all my hooks. If your chosen river is high and coloured or low, gin clear with ice along the margins, why not try bait fishing? It can be good fun and will get you out fishing when conditions are too rough and tough for fly fishing. When it come to choosing a fly fishing outfit for grayling, You Won’t need to spend a fortune on tackle. Though having said that, using a nice rod and a quality engineered reel does gives one a lot of pleasure. If you already fly fish for trout, then no doubt you will have some suitable tackle. My choice would be a rod of 8’6″ to 9’6″ rated for a 5 or 6 double taper line. If your budget is limited, my advice is choose the following from the Masterline International catalogue. A Maxim fly rod for £60-£70, with a JW Young’s reel costing less than £37, matched with an Advantage fly line costing £39.95. All this for less than £150-00. You now have an outfit which if looked after will last for several years and will handle the biggest grayling that swims. You can of course spend £600 to £700 on rod, reel and line. The choice is in your hands. You will need a selection of leaders from 9′ to 12′ tapering down to a tippet of 3lbs and to 6lbs. The breaking strain of your tippet will be dependant on the conditions and size of fish expected, When I fish dry and wet flies, I usually choose a 3lb tippet but for nymphing it’s the heavier 6lb tippet. I use the 12′ fluorocarbon leaders when fishing dry flies on rivers which are low and gin clear. A 9′ leader is long enough when fishing wet flies and nymphs. For hook sizes 12’s and 14’s, use a 3lb tippet but for hook sizes 8’s and 10’s its usually 6lb tippet. These ideas and suggestions are not written in stone but could vary depending on the fishing conditions. I use knotless tapered leaders but after attaching a few flies I tie in some tippet material when needed. For attaching your leader to fly line, my advice is use the simple nail knot. An excellent little knot book is the pocket guide to Fishing Knots by Peter Owen published by Merlin Unwin books. Other small items of tackle you will need are something to make your flies float, and I have found Gink and Mastercare dry fly gel good dry fly dressings. For wet flies and degreasing leaders, Xink and Mastercare leader sink will do the job. What you must do is clean your fly line after every trip. During the course of your fishing session your line will pick up small bits of grit, sand and algae. This will affect your casting, so clean your line down with some Mastercare cleaner/conditioner and don’t forget to give the rod guides a clean. To catch the grayling you will need a selection of dry flies, nymphs and wet flies. There are dozens of patterns to choose from, in fact the list is endless. In this country, we mostly use smaller hooks, 14’s and 16’s but the more adventurous are often using size 12’s and 10’s. In Scandinavia, hooks as large as a size 6 are used. My Bo Special sedge patterns are huge but they work on the still waters and cause the downfall of many big grayling. I call a grayling of two pounds a big fish, three pounders are huge and the four pounders are what dreams are made of. My first choice when given the chance is to fish dry flies, There is something magic watching a fly drift freely down the stream then watching it disappear in a splash and swirl or just a tiny dimple of a rise. One dry fly that has proved very successful even when fish cannot be seen rising is an olive pattern originally tied for me by Alan Biffel of Oldham. Another excellent pattern is the Superpuppan which is fished in the surface film. I clip off all the bottom and top hackles leaving the side hackles to ensure the fly sits in the surface film. This pattern has caught me dozens of grayling. Another pattern is the European 12. I first used this pattern in Sweden with great success and it has proved as successful on the English rivers, not only for grayling but also brown trout. I was told the European 12 was originally tied up by a Frenchman. To be a successful all-round grayling angler you need a selection of dry flies, nymphs and wet flies. Most of us carry too many flies at the waterside, often two or three boxes when one small box with a dozen different patterns will be enough. How often do you change flies during a day at the waterside? I probably try no more than half a dozen patterns at the most. I always try to have the following patterns in my box – The two nymphs I would always want are Pheasant tail and Gold ribbed Hare’s Ear. My dry flies would be Medium Olive pattern, Red Tag, Black Gnat and a Coachman. But of course, I always have thirty or forty flies with me for a day on the river My advice is, check with other anglers on the water you’re fishing and find out what the successful patterns are. Fishing the fly is another of those debatable subjects where we all agree to differ. I feel upstream nymphing is a better way to present the nymph than down and across. Fishing down and across is a very unnatural way of presenting the nymph, Nymphs are swept down stream not across the stream. Far better to cast upstream and fish the nymph down towards you. One mild February day I watched Robert Goodwin fishing an upstream Pheasant tail nymph for Grayling on the river Dove which was carrying a foot of extra water. If my memory is correct, Robert had a pluck on every retrieve, catching several fish which included a magnificent grayling going two and a half pound. It was a delight watching Robert fishing that day. When sight fishing, it is a case of casting the fly to land like thistle down, upstream of the fish, so your artificial drifts down over that feeding fish. When fishing a known bit of water where no fish are rising, I cast upstream and slightly across, letting the fly free drift over an area I suspect fish should be. I will usually make several casts extending the length of cast across the stream on each cast. Grayling are so highly rated by many anglers, that in 1977, a small group of anglers got together and formed the Grayling Society to conserve and establish the grayling as a true wild, game fish. This year it has been given official status as a Salmonid, a major milestone in the Society’s work. There are about 1000 members, mostly in the UK but also in Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Canada. USA and even in Australia, where there aren’t any grayling! The Society is broken down into membership areas, each with its own Secretary. These regional Secretaries often organise fishing or other trips during the year for their area members. The major national event is the AGM and Symposium which takes place at the end of October each year. This is a day of talks by speakers on grayling, the AGM itself and then an evening dinner plus stands and occasionally casting clinics etc. The following day some organised fishing is available in the area for its members. This year the Grayling Society are in Sheffield with the fishing on the Upper Don, the Noe, the Wye and the Dove. Next year they will be in Dumfries. For further information on membership etc. please contact. Mike Tebbs, at Ayott Lodge, 38 the Crescent, Belmont, Sutton, Surrey SM2 6BJ.

Please feel free to E-mail me at martin@flyfish.demon.co.uk if you have any questions.