Tag Archives: Grayling photos

Little rivers with little reward!

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Managed to get out for a few hours with my mate Burnsy on a small local river that normally fishes real well and has a good head of grayling in it, but not today for some reason

Conditions were steady with a bright sky and not to cold with a low wind. An anglers dream at this time of year. Setting up, I was thinking this should be good but I was so wrong! You can never tell how a day will go but that’s fishing!

Everything looked great with water levels spot on but the fishing was as tough as old boots. Changing methods, fishing hard on the bottom with big beads and mixing the depth up to no avail. As the afternoon progressed, the odd large dark olives came off and the odd spinner passed fluttering about but not enough to get the fish moving. I finally gave up and dug deep in my box and pulled out a squirmy worm, things got desperate for a take! Few casts later I took a grayling to my surprise.

If in doubt worm them out from now on lol, it doesn’t matter how long you have been fishing and how much experience you have, on days like this you feel like a newbie. Challenging and changing conditions can make you or break you. Never give up. Always think of doing different things and work every little run, ripple or pool. It was hard but we both caught a few in the end so not a red letter day but more than that we had a good day chewing the fat and putting the world to right.

Grayling in small rivers

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Finally the rain stopped enough to get on a river here is South Wales

The river levels are still a little high in many of the larger rivers so me and a good mate Dan decided to fish a smaller river looking for grayling. The river doesn’t hold a massive head of fish and not that big but it’s not all about that, It was just getting out and walking a new part of the river and searching out the little pockets and pools!

It’s a great little freestone river that is hidden among housing estates and industrial factories but the river is alive. At around 12pm there was a steady hatch of large dark olives coming off and I was hoping fish would react but I only seen one fish rise and that was it but the fish became very active on the nymphs so we tucked in!

Method of the day was the French leader with a two nymph setup, I had two 3m size 14 grub pattern on that took did the trick! Fish seamed to be sitting in around 2ft of water and not much flow but wanted the nymphs dead,dead drift. Takes were very delicate!

My mate Dan went for the pink shrimp on the dropper and a big nasty squirmy worm on the point. He waved it around the river like he owned the place Lol. Love them or hate them they do the business!

Was a challenging day in amongst the trees and trying to get to right presentation but all in all a good day with great company as always!

Grayling Fishing on the river Wye!

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Bit of a change for my good mate Ian Gillard over the weekend, we both fished the river Wye up in Builth wales, Gods country!

Popped into the local paper shop picked are day tickets up and off we set. My mate Ian never seen the river up there and how clear the waters are and I think it was a little bit of a eye opener. Condition were perfect, Low wind and clear sky’s, What more could a angler want on the hunt for graying.

Water levels were good after the washout a week before with record breaking river levels! Most rivers in wales broke there banks and were quite dangerous!

I thought it would be good to head down river and walk the beat just to show Ian about first and show where the grayling normally are in the shallow waters, Crystal clear water can be quite deceiving in depth and in these places you never know what could be in there!

Dry fly was a little out in the morning the wind picked up and started to cover the river with leaves but then I had the chance to show Ian grayling pulling leaves under looking for insects. Not often seen on the lower taff.

Most of the day was Fishing French leader with light tippets and small nymphs. I opted to use my Hanak 2wt super light in Fishing so fine. What a great rod for it to!

Throughout the day we managed some beautiful grayling and out of season trout that were released as quickly as possible.

Below a few images of the great day we had and a short video on how clear the water was and how beautiful the grayling are up there in the Wye!

Grayling candy

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Well the grayling are back in the crosshairs and the vice has been red hot getting ready for it!

Hopefully the weather will be kind this year, giving us many chances to fish for the stunning fish!

Been tying all sorts and in all manner of colours,Pinks,purples, Flo orange and Gold. Always great to have a wide selection of colours in the box but also don’t forget the drab flies, the more natural looking colours, brown, tan, black, and greens!

Below there are a few selections of my favourites ready to hit the water. I’ll put up the more natural patterns soon. Warning please wear dark glasses with these images 🙂 All materials are bought from Funkyfly tying, Great company and great products!

Searching for the grayling with Paul Jenkins

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Sunday morning was a bit of a blessing with good cloud cover and no rain or wind but the weather report was saying it was changing for the worse in the afternoon so me and Paul Jenkins made the most of the good conditions and decided we would search out the grayling along the river Taff!

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Paul hasn’t done much fishing on the Taff for sometime due to fishing other water far and wide like the wye and other hidden little places so it was a change. We were on the water around 9.30 and checking out the fist pool of the day but someone already beat us to it so we moved up river to a long sweeping bend. Ideal place for the grayling to hide out. The far side was around 4ft deep with lovely pea gravel with the odd big rock around the place.

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Nothing much going on with any sort of fly hatch going on that early so the bugs were out. we both set up on the nymphs. Paul moved in above me fishing the shallow side and I went below fishing the deeper side with the heavy bugs dragging the bottom. Paul was fishing the lighter nymph in the shallower water just on the edge of the drop off. Grayling love that edge and the slope into the deeper water so always concentrate on them areas, they will produce fish! Paul was the first to hook up to a lovely grayling around the 1lb, fin perfect.

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Slowly we moved around the river searching all the likely looking areas and we did fish the slower deeper waters with the klink and dink and was rewarded with a few grayling but they just didn’t seem to be in that water in numbers! We targeted the heads of the pools with a little faster water due to seeing a few flies hatching. Fish did start rising but only for a short time and not really worth changing over, the wind started to pick up into the afternoon and the leaves stared to fall making things interesting and becoming a pain so we set off again up river to more open water and much slower.

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French leader twirly style!

We changed over to long leaders and light nymphs and this seemed to do the trick. We started to pick off grayling in good numbers by working down river very slowly pitching the nymphs upstream and letting the leader go past you and down river with lots of upstream mends to keep the dead drift going. The slower the better and the takes were coming in thick and fast. We were having so much fun we didn’t realise the time and with that we decided to call it a day.

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It was a great day out with Paul and the fishing was brilliant. Till the next trip and I can’t wait, ive got that grayling bug big time!

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First session on the grayling.

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The trout season has just passed so the grayling are the next target.  Thymallus Thymallus, the lady of the stream!

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Waking up nice and early with a zing in my step I was soon out the door and down the river setting up the 10ft 3wt. due to being so early and cold the nymphs were what I started on!

The  point fly was a size 16 squirrel and partridge jig with a 2.5m bead and the dropper fly was an olive caddis pattern also with a 2.5m bead. These two nymphs are great all year around!I

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I headed for the slower waters around 3/4ft of where the grayling like to hang around this time of the year, I opted for the two nymph setup with the French leader. I slowly fished up river casting a long line covering a lot of water with not much disturbance.  It wasn’t long and the leader slipping up river to a fine grayling around the 1lb mark! First of the session and in perfect condition.

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As the afternoon went on a few small olives started to hatch and it wasn’t long and the grayling started to rise. Problem was there were so many small grayling it was quite impossible to hook a better size grayling due to the fast little buggers taking the fly or dragging it under, so  I changed back to the nymphs and fished hard on the bottom and it worked quite well.  I still caught many smaller grayling but there were many more bigger fish than small so result!

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Trout season is here and yes i’ve been out finally!

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As we all know the start of the season can be a killer, slow and very frustrating trying to catch your first trout of the new season, but don’t give up there is always one or two that like to play ball somewhere!

It’s trout season finally and the grayling are still playing ball also and are fun and I won’t turn no fish down but they can be a pain when your trying to locate a trout. At the moment the large dark olives been hatching slowly but getting better as spring arrives.  On the saturday the weather was very unsettled  with bright sun and a down stream wind so that was a washout but  sunday was a much better day with light rain and less wind. Good conditions for a better chance of a good hatch of dark olives. Around half past eleven, the LDO;s started to appear and steadily the hatch got better as the afternoon went on, the grayling didn’t wait around just mopping them up but I wasn’t looking for grayling,I was looking for a spotty! But i did have a little fun before moving on 🙂

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I moved away from the grayling and made my to the very ends of the pools waiting for a trout to poke its head out. Grayling tend to rise around the middle of the river and trout can be more tighter to the backs from where I was fishing, so that’s where i was watching. Finally I found two fish rising, i managed to catch the one and the second slipped the hook the bugger 🙂 I love this time of the year because on the river Taff you have to work that much harder to find and catch the trout!

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Not much trout action in the day but the grayling were fun and a few hours on the river is never wasted time! Looking forward to getting out next and maybe finding a few more trout rising and just maybe finding one of Taff monsters poking its nose out! Who knows what could happen!

Finally a day on the grayling

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The conditions are great but the levels are not, the Taff has been holding its high level for weeks but it’s nice and clear and all you can do is fish the inside line in most pools with a fair bit of dodgy wading. Bit cold for swimming this time of year so much care is taken and with shore footing!

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I’ve been catching quite well and enjoying catching the small grayling in the shallower waters close to the banks but now and again you find a few fat pigs hiding in a hole 🙂  bloody Grayling are stuffed solid and I think a few that I have caught have been quite close to bursting haha  food must be plenty in there! Good news for all!

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I’m quite impressed on the condition of the grayling this year and its great to see them in good numbers in all sizes once again! Like everything it has it’s ups and down but the Taff hasn’t really had a good grayling year for a few years.

Tactics! I’ve been mostly working the inside of the fast runs due to the higher water levels, grayling like to just sit off the main flow darting in and out picking off food passing so less energy is used! Sp, target the slower water out of the main flow, this can prove deadly but don’t forget the fast water entirely. Everywhere is worth trying!. In the colder months of winter, grayling can be very picky on where they lay, they move around a lot. In the morning they can be right in the tails of pools and in the afternoon they can move right into the heads of the pool in a foot of water or less feeding hard. Some people can make the mistake of walking through this water and I have many of times thinking they are just not there, take the time to work the water’s and it will pay off in the end!

This fish below was caught in a tail end of a deep pool using the French leader with the two nymph setup. Tippet 1.80kg stroft. length around 4 half feet from the indicator to the point fly. dropper tied on around 20″ above point fly! Nymphs… Point fly 3.5m hotspot hairs ear jig and on the dropper a 3m copper olive caddis pattern, this was the fly that fooled the grayling below!

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DSCF1151All in all it was a cracking day and many fish fell to both of the flies shown above so get tying if you haven’t got them in your box! Not done much on here for sometime, sorry about that people but I will be back on track from now on! cheers for checking in guys and girls 🙂

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Grayling fishing

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Well the trout season has passed and the Grayling are on the menu for me now and the cold weather will be setting in before we know it. Better put the summer gear away ladies and gents and dig the thermals out!

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea standing in freezing waters but i love it and look forward to every trip.

I’ve had a few trips out checking my Local water of the Taff to see if the Grayling are showing sights of shoaling up and checking the spots that have fished well for me every winter… Its been a little hit and miss to be honest and ive had the odd good day finding the odd group of grayling in the 1lb bracket but not really found the bigger fish, but im sure they will make a show soon! I had a hour yesterday just before dark and managed a couple of fine grayling in really good condition.. The method i was using was the braided leader with a pink dog on the dropper and a large peeping caddis on the point.. I was fishing hard on the bottom and as slow as i could, i did lose a few bugs but well worth it catching these below.

The Pink Dog

The Pink Dog

If you would like 2 see the flies ive been catching on check out the links below, it also tells you how i fish these patterns and what materials are used to tie them, hope you like guys!

I’ll be posting new patterns every week so please subscribe to the email,, The peeping caddis will be next!

http://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/article/Winter-Pink-Czeck-Nymph-Bromwells-Bug/25

http://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/article/Winter-Bugs-Hot-Spot-Hares-Ear/27

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