New Years Eve French Nymphing For Grayling

Its has been a while since my last trip to the river, Way to long in fact!! So I decided that on the last day of 2016 I would get out and travel to the river in the hope of catch a few grayling.

So I woke up early (as we all do before a trip to the river) packed the van up and head to a spot I have fished a few times before. My plan was to head slightly further down stream than I had been before and work my way up between the 2 weir pools. The weather wasn't too bad but there was an occasional gusts of wind that could make bite detection difficult at times.

I head off down stream armed with me 10' #4 nymphing rod with a french leader set-up. My chosen flies to start were a heavily weighted green bug with pink tag on point and a pink shrimp on a dropper around 18'' up the line.

I gradually made my way up to the first weir pool with little luck along the way asides from a few plucks and tweaks.

I stopped of for a seat on the wall at the side of the pool for a spot of coffee and a re-think of tactics. After fuelling up and swapping my point fly for a slightly less weighty scruffy hares ear I head to the up stream side of the weir pool to begin my assault on the slower deeper pools that this stretch of the river had to offer.

After only a few cast I was in to my first fish of the day, not the target species but a beautiful brown trout. I quickly unhooked him and set him on his way and got back to the task of locating a school of grayling.

A little further up stream I finally struck on to my first grayling of the day. It was by no means a monster but the target species none the less. Unfortunately due to losing my net down stream I lost the fish as I reached to gather it from the water. Never the less I had located my first grayling and was soon into another.

I continued to work my way up the river with slow but steady success along the way. The light soon began to fade though and it brought to the end a very enjoyable trip and a success 2016.

I hope everyone had a great new year and here to tight lines and great adventures in 2017!!