Feedback & Reports

At the risk of stating the obvious, the secret behind catching Grayling in the winter is to find where they are. That is exactly what I failed to do today so the scorers were not to be troubled. Not sure why; the river looked just about spot on and, in spite of the nasty, strong wind, the air temperature - if not the water temperature - was around 10 degrees higher that it had been last week. Cormorants - which I suspect had been rather more successful that I - at both ends of the beat.

First time on this beat and water clearly still a bit up and slightly coloured so that the bottom could not be seen in about thigh depth water. Overcast day with some brighter intervals and about 7 degrees centigrade.
Never had time to do the whole beat but what I did looked very fishy indeed. Used short line/czech nymph with several changes of fly. Took two grayling one big male approximately 2lbs and one little female.
I could have easily used a 10 foot nymph rod for better reach but only took an eight footer so struggled a bit. However pleasant day out.

Hello, Nil catch, water still high.

A very enjoyable day, if not a bit cold. Dont think it rose above 0 all day. Water started off very coloured, but began to clear after lunch. Landed my first ever grayling just before midday after it took a beaded GRHE. After an excellent fight it was weighed (1.5lb), picture taken and safely returned. A nice looking beat that must be amazing during a warm summer's evening rise.

A blank day for both rods. River was significantly higher than normal level and fast flowing due to the recent snow melt. Despite trying most of the beat with a wide range of nymphs no fish were caught. Still, a great location and we will try again.

Blank. This was the day when the weather changed from sub-zero arctic conditions to thaw, resulting in Herefordshire being covered in a clammy fog. It was still necessary to break up the ice to get into position in most of the pools (how does one do that quietly?), but the river, which really seemed in quite nice condition during the morning, began to rise and colour up with snow-melt later. Whatever the reason, I couldn't make contact with grayling in the usual places. One nice experience was an encounter with a very large otter which surfaced in front of me, paws and head out of the water and rudder lashing about behind, regarding me for a few seconds while I fumbled about to find the camera - too late as always - before he submerged again. I can only hope his fishing was going better than mine! I tried the Lugg again at Lyepole a couple of days later, but found it in coloured flood.

Very nice looking beat with a good mixture of water. Today was the mildest temperature for some time, so expected to catch a few. I managed 2 10inch grayling on the usual heavy bugs, my friend blanked! Saw the usual cormorants trying to come in to fish, the rivers are having a bad time of it with all the lakes frozen. These birds seem to be multiplying out of control and need to be thinned out before its too late!

Excellent days fishing. Slow start but picked up around 1pm with Grayling falling to copper headed size 16 nymphs. I had 4 small grayling and my fishing buddy caught his first ever grayling which was the best fish of the day about 1lb+, fishing czech nymph style. It made the day even better than it already was. Packed up just before dark and will be back to fish this excellent beat again.

Spurred on by favourable catch reports,this was my third visit to the Eyton beat in as many weeks. Filled with the anticipation and hope that we all feel at the beginning of a days fishing I arrived at 10:00 hrs with an air temp of minus 2! and a hard frost on the ground. The river was conisderably down since my last visit and running very clear.

The first hours fishing was difficult as my rod eyes froze making retrieval and casting difficult,however when the sun finally came through the temp rose solving this problem, however it took a long time for my middle finger to thaw out! To cut a long story short I had a completely blank day, fishing from 10 00 to 16 00 hrs,not even a knock. I tried everything, fishing deep and through the riffles and in fast and slow water. I tried many types of flies, shrimp, czech nymph, PT's, ugly things with flourescent attractor beads, red flies and very tiny flies.

I am a beginner to Grayling fishing, but I just don't understand why I blanked. Could it be that it was just too cold?

Perhaps my judgement was coloured by too long away from the river (in my opinion), the offer of positive temperatures, and a beat that was new to me. The river was cold (4°C), as would be expected, and had that slightly milky haze due to mucky melt water. There was the regular splashing, as chunks of the thawing bank fell in.

I made my way upstream, working hard to find some feeding grayling with usually-reliable, deep-fished nymphs. Managed 3 hook-ups to a lovely, washed-out looking 1¼lb BT, and 2 grayling (care being taken to avoid damaging their delicate yolk-sacs). Either the larger grayling were elsewhere, or not remotely interested in what I had to offer - that's fishing.

During the day, without actually looking for them, I noticed cormorant(s) circling on at least 6 occasions. I'd definitely like to try the beat again, especially in the trout season !