An Autumn days Grayling fishing.... 20/10/07

Greenheart · #1 10-21-2007, 03:48 PM

Now that the first frosts of autumn have arrived, I decided that it was time to try for a Grayling for the species hunt. I thought that the Hampshire Avon at Amesbury would be my best bet as there was a good chance that I might also catch a bonus Brown Trout or Chub. Both other species that I require. I arrived at Amesbury at around 9.30am, bought a day ticket & a pint of mixed maggots from the local tackle shop & was down on the river by 10am. Conditions looked perfect. The frost was just melting, Mist clearing & the sun just starting to warm up nicely. The river was very clear, with just a nice flow.

I set up with a 12' match rod & a small fixed spool reel loaded with 3.5lb line, stick float shotted shirt button style & a size 20 barbless hook. I loosefed a few maggots & second cast caught my target species. A hardfighting little Lady of the stream (Grayling)...

This set the pattern for the day. Loosefeed maggot every cast & catch a fish a chuck. I soon noticed though that I was bumping a lot of fish off, which would spook the shoal each time one escaped. The secret with Grayling is to pull the hooked fish away from the shoal as soon as possible to avoid scaring the others. So I changed up to a size 14 barbed hook & this sorted the problem. After i'd been there for about an hour, I heard someone behind me & turned around to see Mike (Mithrandir) had also come to try his luck. He set up a few yards upstream & was soon catching on the quivertip.

Before long, other species started to show. A lot of small chublets "More species points" ,

the occasional dace & Mike also had a couple of nice brown trout. I was also expecting to catch a Brown Trout, but although I lost a couple, I was starting to think this was one species i'd need to try for another day. Then Mike decided to try another swim downstream, so I moved up to where he'd been fishing opposite an overhanging tree & a big raft of weed. I packed up my float rod, set up a quivertip with a small arsley bomb & a 5' hooklength. I then baited up a size 12 hook with 3 maggots & cast just upstream of the weed raft. The baited hook drifted under the weed. The tip pulled straight round & target achieved...... A nice little Brown Trout.

We both ended the day with a good bag of fish....

And retired to the Greyhound pub in Amesbury for a well earned pint Another perfect end to a perfect day....

Still no Ruffe though...

Fishing Forum Admin · #2 10-21-2007, 03:53 PM

Cracking read and you do know some wonderful places to fish and well done on the fish

Norfolkboy · #3 10-21-2007, 03:54 PM

Well done Ian, always nice to get some points and looks a cracking section!

mithrandir · #4 10-21-2007, 04:02 PM

Met up with Ian about midday and fished for a 4 hours. Started my day in a swim near the bridge and fished a maggot feeder on a size 16 barbless hook and 5 lb mainline. This is the simplest way I know to catch the grayling at Lords Walk, find one of the shoaling areas they use, loose feed a few maggots to wake them up and then plop a feeder full of maggots on their heads with a two red maggot bait, usually this will give you a fish on before you have time to tighten up to the feeder. I normally do this about four times then rest the swim for 20 minutes to let them regain confidence.

Today this worked very well, I had more than a dozen Grayling in first swim, some around the pound mark ( the one I weighed was exactly 1 lb) a small chub of a few ounces ( was about 5 inches long) and a couple of trout at under a pound.

Here are a couple of photo's

I still think the Grayling has to be my favourite fish, and they are such good lookers.

I left the swim when it went a bit quiet and moved onto another spot I know where the shoal and again repeated the same procedure, had another 12 Grayling, the first being the funniest.

As I went to make my first cast I managed to get the line over a twig on the tree that overhangs the spot I was casting to, bugger I thought, so I moved along a bit to un-snag it, as I pulled on the line the branch bent down under the weight of the fish on the other end, a swift flick and I got the line off the tree and proceeded to land a half pound grayling, that was a bit shocked as it had come flying out of the water and nearly hit the tree as I first tried to free the line. It took a few minutes to recover in the water before I could release it but it swam away to tell tales to the rest of the shoal about it's visit to the bank.

Ian joined me at the second swim and we beat a hasty retreat to the pub, for a swift pint and home for a take away.

Thanks to Ian for the company, was funny to meet him there again as this is where I first met him and he told me about the forum, it is also the first place I ever fished. It was also nice to get a few fish on the bank, about 30 fish between 6 and 16 ounces, makes a change from being stuck in the house.