Grayling are the answer to a problem a lot of anglers have without realising it, which is what to fish for once autumn turns into winter and everything else has gone quiet. They are at their best in exactly the conditions that make other species difficult, and they are beautiful, obliging and far more widespread than most people think.
Why the timing works so well
Grayling are a game fish rather than a coarse fish, which means their season runs differently. They spawn in spring, so unlike trout they are in prime condition through autumn and winter. Cold, clear water suits them. A hard frost that would shut down a coarse river can produce excellent grayling fishing.
That means from October onwards, when trout seasons close and coarse rivers get hard work, grayling become the obvious target. On the chalk streams and the northern and Welsh freestone rivers they are the winter fish.
Where to find them
Grayling like clean gravel and steady flow. Look for the middle sections of a run, not the fast broken water at the head and not the slow deep pool at the tail. Water about knee to thigh deep moving at a walking pace over gravel is the classic holding water.
They shoal, and they shoal tightly. That has two consequences. First, if you catch one you should expect more from the same spot. Second, blank stretches are genuinely blank, so keep moving until you find them rather than working a barren run harder.
As winter deepens they drop into slower, deeper water, but through autumn they are still in the runs.
What they take
Grayling feed hard on invertebrates on or near the bottom, and everything productive is built around getting a bait or a fly down to them.
On the fly, a weighted nymph is the standard. Pink and orange hot spots are almost a cliche in grayling fishing and they genuinely work, which is why everyone uses them. A jig-style nymph with a tungsten bead gets down fast in a run.
On bait, where the fishery allows it, maggots trotted under a float are devastatingly effective. Grayling love maggots and a well-presented trotted bait covers water quickly.
Trotting is worth learning
If you only take one technique from this, learn to trot. A centrepin or a good float reel, a stick float or an Avon depending on the depth and flow, and a bait running through at the speed of the current just above the gravel.
The advantage over static fishing is enormous. You cover the length of a run in one pass and you present the bait naturally. Grayling will follow a trotted bait a long way before taking it.
The take is unmistakable
Grayling bites are sharp. A trotted float goes under decisively rather than dithering. On the nymph the take is often a sudden stop or a flash of movement under the surface.
What follows is the bit people fall in love with. Grayling use that enormous dorsal fin against the current and they fight in a way that is completely unlike a trout. Hold on and let the fish work, because the hook hold in that soft mouth is not always secure.
Handle them carefully
Grayling are more delicate than they look and they suffer from being kept out of the water. Unhook them in the net where you can, keep them wet, and give them time facing into the flow before you let go. In cold water they recover quickly if you do it properly.
Know the rules where you are
Grayling occupy an odd position legally. They are a game fish but they are often covered by coarse fishing rules on rivers, and different fisheries treat them very differently. Some chalk stream beats manage them as a prized winter species, others historically treated them as vermin. Check the specific rules for the water you are fishing before you go.
A first grayling session
Find a river with a known head of grayling and buy a day ticket somewhere that is happy for you to fish for them. Take a float rod, a pint of maggots and a willingness to walk. Fish the steady runs over gravel, trot each one through several times, and if two passes produce nothing, move. When you find them you will know, because you will catch several.
Sarah Marsh came to fly fishing through her father, who kept a rod on a small syndicate water in Devon. She spent her teens fishing stocked reservoirs and gradually worked her way toward wild fish on moving water – first on rain-fed freestone rivers in Wales, then on the Hampshire chalk streams she now considers home water.
She holds a level 2 APGAI fly casting qualification and guides informally on the River Test and, from June to September, on a private beat on the River Tay for Atlantic salmon. Her personal best brown trout came from the Itchen at 4lb 1oz; she’d sooner not talk about the salmon that came off at the net last August.
At The River Bend, Sarah writes the game fish species guides, fly fishing technique articles, and the legal content covering trout and salmon regulations.
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