Lots of lovely ladies.

Maybe it was one of the slight changes I made to my end tackle, the larger float, the swivel between my mainline and hooklength, the new fluorocarbon hooklength or maybe the new hook pattern I went with? Maybe the stretch of the Cylde I decided to try for the first time just happened to hold a shoal of my target species on the day? Maybe the ladies simply couldn't resist me any longer? Who knows? To be honest I didn't really care. Stood in the river up to my waist slowly trotting my float down a nice pool with my centrepin last Sunday was a relaxing way to spend a few hours. I enjoyed a wonderful day's fishing, catching and releasing my first ladies of the stream of the year.

The grayling really is a stunning fish. Perhaps the most beautiful of all UK freshwater fish?

I really hope the coming months provide good conditions for me to do more trotting for grayling as I'm really enjoying it. I plan on heading out to target them again tomorrow and I might have a go for them locally on the North Esk. On a related note I'm also toying with the idea of getting a tenkara rod and using it to give fishing nymphs for grayling a go as well. Maybe another special lady in my life will treat me for Christmas?

Tight lines, Scott.

Three men and a lady.

After several emails asking if I could tag along with them I finally had the pleasure on Sunday of meeting up and fishing with Brian and Col, co-writers of the rather good "Streamside Diary" blog. After driving west and picking them both up we headed west further still to a stretch on one of the rivers they fish for grayling where they've had some success recently. After a short walk to the spot we'd be fishing we were soon tackled up and ready to get into the river. I had decided to try a centrepin reel for the first time and the latest addition to my fishing tackle arsenal was spooled up with 3.2lb Bayer Perlon. I paired it up with a 13ft float rod. An Avon float was employed and I was soon trotting a single maggot on a barbless #18 Kasaman B911 hook about four feet beneath it. I immediately found it a real pleasure to use especially as it only took three trots to hook a fish!

My first "lady of the stream" was in fact a male.

Obviously I was quite pleased and with the pressure off we could all relax and enjoy the rest of the day. Brian soon caught a few grayling, some of them right at his feet which goes to show that feeding maggots regularly can draw the shoal in rather close.

This nice grayling certainly put a smile on Brian's face.

Col had soon caught a few too and it was turning into a rather wonderful mild winter morning's fishing. At this point I noted that Brian's float seemed to be trotting downstream at a much slower speed than mine even though he didn't seem to be slowing it using his centrepin. I figured this was perhaps due to him either fishing a lighter float than mine or fishing his maggot slightly deeper than I was and this acting as a break. I quickly increased the length of the drop I was fishing and this seemed to have the desired effect and also saw me hook a few more fish almost straight away with three more grayling caught in quick succession. After a couple of hours I had to take a break on the bank as my leaking waders meant my left foot was absolutely freezing.

Whilst I enjoyed a warming cup of soup and thawed out my foot Col plays another grayling.

After a while we decided to split up and went for a wander fishing different swims. The clouds had disappeared by this point and this seemed to slow things down a bit. I found that fish were taking my bait a lot further downstream from me. Perhaps the extra sunlight made my presence easier for them to spot and they kept their distance as a result. In the afternoon I only managed a small out of season brown trout and three more grayling but to be honest it was nice just to enjoy the scenery and practice using the centrepin.

We all caught a brownie or two.

My final grayling of the day was probably in the nicest condition.

I admire a really lovely fish. I like their yellow teardrop shaped eyes too.

Beautiful deep red colouration on the dorsal fin.

It was soon time to go and on the way back we had a good chat about fishing. It was great meeting up with Brian and Col and I can't thank them enough for helping me catch my first grayling. Hopefully we can meet up again in the future. They've been dabbling with lures in saltwater this year so maybe I can return the favour and help them catch something new. They both mentioned that they'd tried to catch a corkwing wrasse and had no luck so perhaps a day hunting some down next summer will be a good way to repay them.

Tight lines, Scott.