A Days Grayling at Lords Walk

[Banana Steve]

It’s not very often I get the chance to fish for Grayling and it is something I do enjoy doing, especially when fishing for them on the stick. Well the opportunity came up to fish Lords Walk on the outskirts of Amesbury on the Hampshire Avon.
It’s been a few years since I last fished there and I was looking forward to the day’s fishing.

Ian had arranged to pick me up at 8:30, we arrived at Amesbury at 09:10 and headed to the tackle shop to pick up the day tickets, they had gone up since I last fished there but at £5.00 for day who can complain.

On arriving at the river we noticed a few cars in the car park, I was hoping that they hadn’t gone too far up stream and the pegs by the bridge were still free. It is a pleasant walk along the river bank and the river runs nicely along the pathway. As we walked along the path we came across two anglers, one was fishing a very tight peg. In fact it wasn’t even a peg just a small gap of around foot and half between two trees. He stated that he had caught 2 or 3 Grayling and some Brownies. That raised my hopes and my keenness to get fishing.
As we got to the next angler he was just setting up and was yet to catch, but I did notice that the water was pushing through, I think that this is the norm for this section of the Avon. As both Ian and I neared the end of the day ticket water we choose our swims, I opted for the swim near the bridge as the glide looked nice.

My battle plan was to fish two methods, one on a heavy Stick float, which soon changed to a very heavy Crow Quill Topper. And to fish a large block end feeder on a heavyish feeder rod.

The first rod that I set up was the feeder and using the Trent loop to attach the feeder to and with a nice long hooklength of around 24” with a size 18 Drennan Carp maggot hook.




As by the above picture I casted the feeder just shy of the far bank features, as I was setting up my float rod, I caught in the corner of my eye the tip rattle, I stopped what I was doing and my hand hovered over the reel, my whole attention was transfixed on the tip of the rod. Suddenly a quick rattle again, I almost struck, I felt like a cat ready to pounce, then came the proper bite as the tip flew round, I grab the rod and felt the satisfying thump of a connected fish, Then as I started to play the fish upstream I felt the fish turn into the current, the fish started to really pull bending the feeder rod in all the right places, it was a fantastic fight and the fish was giving its all. As I brought the fish up into the clearer layers I could see the sail like dorsal fin with its purples and gold’s reflecting through the water, I could see by the size of the fin that this was a male and boy he didn’t want to come in. I have not had many Grayling but this was the biggest I had ever caught and that put extra pressure on. After 3 attempts I finally got the fish in the landing net, with a sigh of relief I unhooked the fish, the fish was around the 2lb mark, that fish made the whole day worth going, ohh and it even earned me 1.5 points as well.


After sorting out the feeder and re-baiting, I casted to the same spot, and carried on setting up the float rod. To start with I choose a 4BB stick float but after a cast into the river I knew that was the wrong choice. So off came the float and on went the Crow Quill with a weight of 2 Swan, on casting that out to the river confirmed that the Crow Quill was the way to go. which might catch me some fish.



With the float rod all set up, I started to feed up stream on the line I wanted to fish the float. As I was doing this I saw the tip go round again, on striking I felt the fish. Another good fight and this time I managed to get the fish into the landing net first time. The fish was another Grayling and was of around the same size as the last one. So I was straight back out on the feeder but this time I overcastted and ended a little further downstream.

The feeder landed just next to the tree on the right hand side of the picture, almost immediately the tip started to rattle and continued to rattle, so on striking I felt that thumping again but this felt different, not such a hard fight but juddery, an early Eel I thought and then I saw the fish, a small Brownie.

An hour had pasted and I had been feeding regularly with the maggot on the far bank and I felt it was time to fish the float. A gentle cast to the far bank and a small amount of feed to follow the float, off I started. The pace of the river was faster than I thought and the float was at the end of the swim before I knew it. After several casts the float was working its way down past the tree and entering even faster water when I saw the tip of the float disappear, I struck but nothing, I let the float re-settle and the float dipped again and on striking I felt the familiar feeling again, This fish did put a fight and it tested my float rod, I think that when I come back again I will use a rod with a little bit more back bone as my rod this time struggled to play the fish. I took my time and I managed to land the fish, yet another large male Grayling of around the 2lb mark.

Back out again and the float reach the same spot as last time the float dipped again, this time I had a really big fish on and on taking my time getting it upstream I saw a flash of the dorsal fin and then disaster, the hook pulled and saw the fish drive to the depths and what looked like a 3lb+ fish.

My swim died after that and was over an hour before the next fish, which was taken right at the end of the swim on the lead for which I swapped over, thinking that I had over fed. I had hooked another 2lb Grayling the 4th of the session it’s amazing that all the years I have been fishing for these fish I had never caught one over 1lb and going out on this day I caught several 2lb+ fish.


I popped downstream to see Ian to see how he was doing and he was bagging, he was catching Grayling up to 1lb in weight and whilst I was there he a nice on of around 1.5lb mark. He told me that when you lose or spook Grayling they drag the shoal away from that area, and might have explained the lack of bites after losing the big Grayling. It was 1:45pm and Ian said that he wanted to be gone by 4pm, so I went back to my swim for another go on the float.

On the 3rd trot through I hooked another juddery fish, yep you guessed it was another Brownie for which wasn’t too bad in size. But I had already had points for a Brownie.


However, the Brownie was the last fish I caught on the float, as I got snagged on a branch and snapped the line, luckily I got the float back, and with an hour or so left I went back out the tip with the lead. I managed two more Grayling 1 at the 2lb mark and a small one of around 10ozs. It was 3:15 and I could see Ian packing up, so I also called it a day
With a total of 9 fish, 2 Brownies, 5 Grayling at the 2lb mark and one small Grayling.


Mind you Ian informed me on the way home that he had over 30 Grayling, I think his day was a lot busy than mine. It’s a shame I lost the big Grayling, but hey ho there is always next time.

[headless]

well done mate, it looks a lovely place to fish,

I have never caught a Grayling before but hopefully end of next season Twiddler will be taking me out for a good day, maybe you could arrange a meet?

Darrell

[Simon N]

Great Report Steve Some Fantastic Looking Fish. Great Day Had By The Both Of You Well Done.

[fishypaul]

well done mate,some lovely fish there, beautiful stretch of river

[JustMark]

Excellent report and pics. Very useful rig diagrams too. Top Job

[mithrandir]

well done, it is a ,lovely stretch. It is the place i first started fishing.

that swim you were in Steve is a great spot, the big boys like to hide under the weed just before the little bay by the trees.

The nice brownies seem to hide on the corner by the little weir.

[BaggieRich]

Well done Steve, nice report.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

cracking read and well done

[pingu]

cracking day there steve
nice one

dave

[paddy2k7_red4life]

well done mate a great report
regards
paddy