Grayling fishing

[Dick Dastardly]

Are we talking the reel? or the artic Grayling? or BOTH!!!

[Guest tigger]

Are we talking the reel? or the artic Grayling? or BOTH!!!

 

 

 

I was talkin fish Budgie, I thought that was what Chris meant, but if someone wants to give me one of the reels I'll be polite and accept it.

[Andy Macfarlane]

To be honest Andy I didn't take a lot of notice appart from the one in the pic all the others where caught whilst out in the river so I just unhooked them and slipped them straight back in the water. You'd have thought a bit of milt would have dribbled out whilst unhooking them but I didn't see any. I know it's closed season for them but Unfortunatly there a by product of Grayling fishing, they where all away like rockets so no harm done.

 

I hope you didn't think I was chinning you for catching pre-spawn Trout. I was merely curious to know if they were going through the motions just yet. I feel it might be a tad early myself. It's not unknown for temperatures to rise quite sharply at this time of year which could damage any eggs laid.

It sounds like you had some great sport anyway. You should perhaps think about trying sweetcorn for Grayling. Wild Brownies aren't into corn I don't think (or not in my experience) but Grayling certainly are, so it's possible to fish for Grayling using much the same techniques without picking up quite so many Trout. I'd be giving it a bash.

[Guest tigger]

Bloody hell me posts have got jumbled up.

Edited November 9, 2008 by tigger

[Guest tigger]

Andy I know your not chinning me m8, no worries, I've have tried sweetcorn there for the Grayling and instead of a bite a trott is was just a bite every now and again. So even if I catch some trout I'll stick with the maggots.

Edited November 9, 2008 by tigger

[Andy Macfarlane]

Andy I know your not chinning me m8, no worries, I've have tried sweetcorn there for the Grayling and instead of a bite a trott is was just a bite every now and again. So even if I catch some trout I'll stick with the maggots.

 

I'd say that between us we caught well over 100 fish a piece - a great day!

 

I think if you're getting some bites with corn, that's the way you should be going. It is the closed season for a reason. Trout need peace to breed, just like pike and we're always being told not to target them when they're breeding so why is it OK to pull out trout during the closed season but not pike during the open season??

You said you caught 100 fish a piece, which I'm sure is - a great day! but how many grayling do you need to catch for it to be a productive session? 1....5....10....20?? How many is enough to make it a good day? If you're missing a few fish to the exclusion of the trout, that's what you should be doing, is it not?

Why don't you accept that you've had a red letter day, enjoy it for what it was and leave the trout alone.

[Anderoo]

Why don't you accept that you've had a red letter day, enjoy it for what it was and leave the trout alone.

 

Andy, if you could let me know how to effectively avoid trout I'd love to hear it! Also, pike are much more delicate than trout. Sorry, but if trout are there, you will catch them, regardless of bait or tactics. If you're fishing legally and return all the fish, I can't see a problem.

 

I wasn't trying to be funny before - if you do know of a way to avoid trout, I would genuinely like to know and give it a go, because on my little rivers here they are a real pain.

[Andy Macfarlane]

It depends a lot of whether the Brown Trout are wild or artificially reared. Wild Brownies of the type Tigger was catching are far choosier about what they will and will not eat and they'll very rarely take a piece of corn, unless they've been introduced to it over a period of time, without having been caught. It would be highly unlikely to catch a wild Brownie on a piece of corn if they've never seen before. Grayling however, will take a piece of corn. It's thought that sweetcorn looks something like Trout eggs. I don't know if that's true or whether it's just that Grayling are more opportunistic in their eating habits but you can fish for Grayling and virtually rule out catching any wild Brownies. Stockies will take corn no problem though. They'd eat a stone or a fag-butt if you present it to them properly.

I'm not having a go at Tigger but I think when he admits to catching the numbers of fish that he did, he could take an acceptable reduction in fish caught, if it means leaving the Trout alone till they've bred, whilst still banking a reasonable number of Grayling. That's all I'm suggesting.

Once the Trout have bred, I see no harm in reverting back to maggots. We're only talking about a handful of sessions after all.

[dapper64]

how big do grayling grow in this country?I caught one on saturday that was about 3 lb.

[lutra]

how big do grayling grow in this country?I caught one on saturday that was about 3 lb.

I'd be very happy with a 3lber, have a look here.