So, a New Year, maybe some new luck on the Grayling front.
Went again this time to just above Crawford and fished the stretch downstream of the bridge in Crawford up to and around past the mainline railway bridge.

View Lower Crawford beat in a larger map
Water was very clear- gin clear I would say and a bit down on where it had been on the 28th.
The weather was quite cold- I was fine though- and towards the end of my session I was suffering frozen rings! ooer missus!

I used the Czech Nymph technique again for most of my day though have to say the water was a bit slow and shallow in places especially just down from Crawford village before the railway bridge. You can wade all the way over the river here.
However, as you approach the bridge it deepens notably and there is a very deep pool as the river turns to go under the bridge.
I sort of hoped for some luck here but either I was offering the wrong flies (likely), the method was wrong (likely), my fishing technique was crap (very likely) or there were simply no fish (somewhat likely)- but I never saw or touched a thing.

There were some pretty impressive sheets of ice- some of the icebergs from the few days before had obviously grounded here and become landlocked for the want of a better term.

The stretch below the river held some intrigue for me too but was very deep and fast pushing down the right and the spot I wanted to try was too far out of reach. I stupidly tried to use a slightly longer length of line to reach over further and ended up snagged on the bottom. In trying to retrieve my leader it snapped- right at the knot holding the top micro-ring of my Hanak indicator.
I had noticed the bottom knot on the indicator was a bit rubbish and had re-tyed it but the top looked OK- obviously, it wasn’t.
Tip to all buying a Hanak Indicator- check and retie the knots!
I do like the indicator. In some conditions its really visible- like today- where the water provided a relatively dark backdrop to the surroundings.
As it was getting later and I still fancied this lower pool I swapped over and tried hanging a couple of small pheasant tail nymphs under a large Klinkhammer NZ or duo style. The technique seemed to work well- a bit of a pain to tie the line onto the bend of the hook, but it fished nicely.
Did the dipping of the Klink indicate a take- well if it did I never felt it and it did it a few times at the same spot- I suspect the bottom PTN was merely catching the bottom. By now the rod rings were icing solid so time to call it a day.