After College Grayling

Lovely section of River

With a frost on the ground and my gear on standby, I decided to head out to the local river after college. Choosing a different section to the one I fished with James on the Saturday, I had a few swims in mind where I was sure a few bites would be on the agenda. The first swim was a dead loss, especially when an otter topped just upstream of me... I walked upstream and knew of where the river narrowed and had a bit of pace. Very inviting to the likes of grayling and a nice crease on the far side where one would expect roach and patrolling perch on the prowl after minnows. After steadily trickling in some grains of corn, on my 5th or so run down, I hooked a good fish. Although it is always hard to tell how big grayling are when first hooked, I was disappointed when it bumped off. After bumping another on the next trot, a few more runs through and I managed to induce another take. I struck more positively this time and a nice grayling was on the end. After the typical fight from a grayling, twisting and turning in the current and gyrating, I slowly guided the stunning fish into the net. It was certainly a good pound at least. I gave the fish a good rest in the net, and carried on running through. It was not long until I managed another couple more stunners in that sort of stamp. I took a quick shot of the trio before a prompt release.

A fine trio of ladies - same setup doing the business...

Giving the time for less hardy fish like grayling to revive is something I have done in recent years and in a net with depth, allows the fish to properly revive and go back more resiliently. Some people release them without any form of revival, which can mean they go belly up and get disorientated - this does not do them any favours. I continued on running through and managed quite a few fish of the same sort of stamp with bites being, at points, very regular. Even though nothing larger came of the day, these fish certainly give great accounts of themselves. An out of season sea trout did turn up as well which did certainly give me a good run around on light tackle. All in all an enjoyable afternoon after college...

Tight Lines,

Tom

Pleased with this shot - two fine looking ladies of the stream going back...