last weekend of the grayling season

Yesterday saw myself and my friend wayne adventuring out for the last time of the grayling season before March 3rd when the trout season begins.  We headed out early around 08:00am and it was a wonderfull morning with the sun shining for once and all the birds in the area and on the river singing at the top of thier voices. I was set up with the usuall 10ft 3# with a team of nymphs and wayne with a 8ft 3# on the klink and dink.  At first it was a little slow and no fly life on the water except for the odd gnat or two.  I placed my flies in a very juicey looking run with a few big bolder in it and a few loose pockets at the sides but not a single sniff and wayne wasnt having too much luck either with 1 hook up on the klink & dink but eventually loosing the fish at his hand :(

We decided to hang about and have breakfast for a short while as the sun was coming from the shadows of the big tall trees next to the river side to see if it would spark and equatic life forms to life and see if any hath would come on.  We guessed rite and within half an hour there was a good number of little olives and a few brook dunns coming off the water and a few fish were rising freely taking advantage of the hatch while they could.  Wayne placed his flies up river in the runs waiting for either his klinkhammer to go under or a fish to rise and a greedy little grayling came up for the klinkhammer and fish on :D a nice little fat grayling to hand.  After the first fish caught there was no stopping Wayne catching more and more little grayling up to around 3/4lb to the klink & dink and he was really enjoying himself so i ventured up river to the next runs.

I spotted a flat run with a little bit of fast water at the head of the pool but what took to my attention was that there was a big boulder sticking out of the water in the middle of the run which had my name all over it :)  I place my team of nymphs about 10 feet below the boulder first just incase there was any fish hanging around but nothing for the first few casts and then all of a sudden my strike indactor shoots under but i  was too late to strike it.  But now i knew that there was fish there to be caught :D

I started placing my flies a bit further up towards the big boulder waiting for my indicator to under and first cast it shot under like a bullet.  Fish on but eventually came off :'( so placed my flies in the same sport and waited for the strike as it flowed down nicely theough the run and AGAIN it shot under like a bulet but this time i was determind to keep the fish on which felt like a really nice fish.  At first i thought it was a trout but then i saw the tell taled signs of it being a graying with the fin sticking out of the water :)  It took me a while to bring it in as it fought really well and i eventually got it into the net  ( YAY ) a nice grayling around the 1 1/2 lb mark.  Sadly after that spectacular catch i hooked into a nice trout about the same size but snapped me off and myself and wayne decided to call it a day and go home to watch the rest of the football and stories of what we caught on the way home.
Stroll on March 3rd :D

Here are a few pictures of the flies which worked well for me and a few pictures of fish ;)

red tag jig & hares ear jig
 
hares ear jig

One of the smaller grayling

one of the bigger ladies :)

safe returns