Lady of the stream

The Grayling is a fresh water fish that has earned itself the title "Lady of the stream" it is a "game" fish that is said to make good eating. Over the last week or two, I have been passing some of my time reading about Grayling, learning their habits and feeding preferences. I have not been fly fishing for a full year yet, but I have really learned to enjoy it. The Trout season ends with the onset of autumn but the Grayling season continues through to spring so I wanted to learn the best tactics for catching these fish. Through the summer months, I caught quite a large number of these fish but all were quite small, no more than six to eight inches. Now I read about a technique called Czech nymphing, it involves using a team of three different flies on one line and is said to be the best method. When I fish with a single fly, I always get tangled, miss bites, lose flies in vegetation, all clearly an indication of my ineptitude, none the less, I still enjoy it. Boxing day I decided that I would give this Czech style a try. The day was cold and crisp with lots of sunshine, I set up the tackle and took myself off in search of some of the "Ladies" I made a couple of gentle casts to try and get the feel of things and within minutes had a huge tangle of line and flies on the end of my rod. For about twenty minutes I stood untangling this mess, hands and feet getting cold, my temper beginning to fray. All sorted, I stretched out the line and cast again only to achieve a second and much worse tangle, for another half an hour I went through the same frustration of trying to untangle this multi-fly rig. I almost reached the point of taking my knife and cutting the line off and giving up this stupid technique. By now, through lack of movement, I was freezing cold and so had a short walk along the river casting carefully in several different spots that I thought may hold fish. Nothing. Not a bloody sniff. Down hearted and nearing a state of depression I turned back upstream to head for the warmth of the truck when I saw another stretch of water that might be worth a try. I lay my net on the bank and carefully waded back into the ice cold river, I made three casts then "Bang" the rod tip took a sharp dive and about twelve foot of line was pulled off my reel. WooHoo I am thinking trembling with the thrill of some real sport, carefully I played the fish, then it broke the surface and I caught site of the large reddish dorsal fin of a Grayling. The fin alone was half the size of any previous fish that I had caught when it took a dive, pulling the rod tip down again and shaking like a Jack Russell terrier. For the next five or ten minutes I savoured the fight before landing the fish in my net. What a lovely fish, the biggest fish of any species that I had caught so far. I photographed my prize and thought about the meal that it would provide before placing it back in the water and releasing it. Lady of the stream? it fought like a true warrior, no way could I take this fish for the table. I have no idea of it's weight nor do I really care but the fish was about 13 to 14 inches long and in superb condition. I cleaned up, gathered my bits and pieces together and returned to the truck feeling really pleased with myself. Those Czechs, it seems know a thing or two about the ladies.