Scratching that Grayling Itch

It kind of bugged me that so far my Grayling season had been somewhat tepid, and that was understating it. Only two outings and two blanks. Add to this, that I generally catch less of them as the winter and Grayling “season” wears on. I was definitely needing to scratch that grayling itch.

Time running out

Late Autumn is usually ( for me anyway) the most productive. Its that time of year when another candle gets poked into the birthday cake. If you have followed this blog a few years you will know I always try to get out around the “big day”. Ideally on the Grayling but if the weather prevents that then basically pretty well anywhere I can wet a line. The forecast early this week looked like the conditions , which have been unseasonably mild and settled this week, might be going to break by Friday. Thursday ( when I looked) was still looking OK. I have a fair few spare days of holidays still to take so decided to have both Thursday and Friday off, and get out Thursday as the best chance to catch the better weather.

As time was not an issue I was up early and took the rather lengthy and tortuous drive down to Drumlanrig on the River Nith. I have only fished the Nith 4 times. Twice right down near Dumfries and once at Drumlanrig. I did Ok last time at the Castle so decided I would revisit and hopefully with it being a bit quieter this time ( I was a guest of an organised club outing of the UAAA last time) I might be able to try a few more spots.

I was fortunate that I had it all to myself for the entire day and so the plan I had hatched of where to fish was pretty much stuck to, and let me cover quite a lot of water.

As I was tackling up the gamekeeper turned up and we were blethering. He said it was very low for the time of year ( hard for me to gauge as I have no real reference of the place) and that Grayling catches had been “difficult” though one spot, ( which I interpreted to be around where I planned to start if I understood him correctly) had been doing Ok for trotting.

Obviously I wasn’t trotting but hopefully if the water wasn’t too high that the deeper water might be fishable. I had a second rod with me to fish a couple of nymphs under an indicator if I needed it.

Making a start

Starting where I planned I fished along a clear foam line and behind the cover of an overhanging tree. I think I had only cast three of four times when I had my first thumping take. A fairly typical 30cm Grayling on an Orange beaded bug. I was optimistic I might get more here but it wasn’t to be. I did have one funny thing happen though that I have not observed before. On one drift down I noticed little “thrums” on the line. Imagine a guitar string being plucked gently. It was kind of like that. Lifting, there was nothing there but it was both visible and I could feel it. As the flies swung up at the end of the drift I could clearly see a Grayling follow the top pink shrimp right up to just under the surface and then kind of nonchalantly swim by it. None of that Spooky dash to the depths you get from a trout when it doesn’t take a fly- it just kind of casually swam by it.

I tried changing the top fly to smaller and more natural-looking patterns but it had no effect. By now I was reaching deeper water and I tried to cover it on a longer line with an Air-Loc on but this never got me any more fish and I got a bit “bored” with the method if I am honest.

I moved upstream and decided to try some fast and deep water below a stoney beach. My first three or four casts felt like they were not getting down deep enough and I had to resort to a big “caddis” pattern, ( I use that interpretation of the pattern loosely) it was a 4.5mm Tungsten Disco ball with some hares ear wrapped around the hook in a kind of Carrot shape!

The first cast and the point bug hit the water like a depth charge, I immediately felt it hit bottom and almost right away it was followed by another sharp take and another 30cm Grayling once again took the Orange beaded bug.

The hunch that I needed to be fishing heavier and getting down here paid off. With the water not being “that” cold, and the weather being so mild, I don’t think the Grayling are shoaling up and I was about halfway up this run when I hit my second fish of this section albeit a smaller fish, probably one of last summers Brood at no more than 10cms.

All morning it had been very grey and damp, not actually raining but everything was getting wet. After around 12 the skies lightened a tad and it dried up noticeably. I was though feeling a wee bit cold though and so decided to retire back to the car parked conveniently on the bank, to get something warm.

After a break I returned upstream and fished one of the upper runs through pretty much bank to bank for maybe 50-60metres but not a touch did I get. I was kind of hopeful here as I had a decent fish in this spot last time. The river was a little lower though this time though and very, very clear.

My plan was to be at my final spot for the last hour before sunset, I tend to think around dawn and dusk are your best chances to snare a Grayling and I thought I might know just the place. Only Debbie Downer was the Gamekeeper… He had said nothing much was being caught from the hut down and my friend Radek ( a better angler than me) had been on the lower beat the day before and only managed one small fish.

Nothing ventured though nothing gained. I made the long walk down the beat and then across the river at a point I remembered was shallow enough to get right across at and was on location around half past three, ideal timing.

I cannot tell a lie, I was optimistic if not confident I would get something here. So when I had not had a fish after about 30 mins I was thinking the gamekeeper must be correct. I had been constantly messing around with my point fly weight. At this point the water runs at two speeds and there is a diagonal shelf where it drops right off. In the shallower bit ( not that shallow in point of fact) with moderately weighted flies ( 3-3.5mm beads) I was snagging bottom all the time. As soon as they went over the lip of the drop off I was pretty sure they were not getting down. Putting too much weight on ( the heavy “Caddis” was snagging bottom all the time but ideal for the drop).

As I worked my way down the pace seemed to even out and the slope was a bit more gradual so I left the heavy fly on and it felt to be fishing better. It was by now getting pretty dark and I was pondering packing up as I had the walk back and had to cross over the river again on the way.

“just one fish” I was thinking when the line stopped and another very small juvenile Grayling came to hand. Its eyes were bigger than its belly as it had taken the big point fly. OK one more proper fish…please. A couple more casts and another step and the line again stopped. I could clearly feel the fish. It felt initially like something between the size of the earlier fish and the juveniles. The odd thing though was that it did not feel heavy, but nor was it coming to the surface either.

That was OK I would walk it into the edge and net it in the slower current. After about 1 minute of this process, when I still had not seen it it then, I think, realised it was hooked! This was no small fish and pulled very hard. OnceI got it near the surface I got an idea of the size of it. It wasn’t the biggest Grayling I had ever caught but was definitely in the upper quartile.

It took me two goes to get it in the net but I was at last successful a Grayling of about 45cms possibly a tad more, and I would estimate a comfortable 2 and a half pounds. A cracking way to end a day on the Nith and a nice way to have that grayling itch well and truely scratched.