First ever Grayling? Not quite.

[barbelblanker]

Today was the first time I have ever seen a grayling in the fin and in my net . WooHoo! There's one knocked off the years fish list.

Well it would have been but I'll explain why it wasn't.

Took my eldest to the River Teme today. Wanted to be there by 1 but Mrs BB was still at her mothers in Telford and did not get back till 13:40 so Mr BB was not best pleased.

Got in the car and rushed down to the BAA strech , parked and got my fist glimpse of a river I've got a feeling I am going to fall in love with. Not as awe inspiring as the nearby Severn (in to which it empties) in fact it is in many ways similar in size to the Taff . It does , however , just scream FISH so was quite confident.

The stretch had quite a flow to it so found a great looking stretch where the main flow deflected back on itself. From the boils and eddies though the flow under the surface was looking complicated to say the least. On the far back was a tree with it's masive root structure dunked in the water , had it been on the near bank then a halibut pellet would have been in there before you could say , barbel. As it was there was a downed tree to the right of the swim and that's where the "cast and hope" barbel rig went in.

I set up a block end , very small ,feeder 18 hook to 1.7 bayer and cast it to junction between the main flow and the eddies. Told Moll' to watch the rod and tell me if anything happened. Which she did. So I elaborated, told her to grab the line above the reel and give it a quick tug "That's what to look for". So I got in to setting the barbel rod that was going in to the downed tree to the right when she says "Dad!!" and sure enough I tell her to reel in and put the net under a grayling of about 12oz to a pound. Couldn't believe it, she had caught a grayling and I was just spectating.

Got the barbel rod sorted out and cast it out.

In the mean time she's off again and in comes another, much smaller, grayling and I hadn't got my weapon of choice out (the float rod). So I baited her back up and got the float rod out.

Well that killed it dead and we caught nowt else.

The float revealed the utter chaos of the flow and mere inches in either direction and the float went in all sorts of directions. I think that there scene under the water must have been utter bedlam.

Eventually ran out of light so packed up and left.

Took the opportunity to check out the other BAA fishing in the area and it was a real diverse bag with some stunning swims . can't wait to try these out.

Reckon the next trip will be the Eastleigh stretch and with the float . The flow is a lot less complicated and just screams out to be fished.

Thoroughly enjoyed the trip , even if I did get outfished by an eight year old.

Very happy that my detective work in locating grayling, just need to catch one myself next time.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

well done and great read

[pingu]

i have decided that it is impossible to outfish your own offspring

nice report

dave

[Portland Pirate]

Unlucky on not getting a Grayling. I did note this year when we fished the Frome, that after landig a couple of Grayling from one spot, it seems to kill it for a long period. I think you need to be on the go quite a bit for Grayling. I know they can be caught on the fly, but I have never givin it a go.