Wednesday 25th January - A Lovely Day after the Grayling!

Well considering I retired at the end of last October this is the 1st outing since then! Not what I had planned but hey ho I have the new season to look forward to with certainly plenty of fishing pencilled in.

Today I planned to meet Derek at the cricket pitch in the park for a try for the grayling. As this was my 1st visit for months I wasn't feeling too confident. We started around 12 and the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky, the early frost was gone and everything was lovely! I went down to the old stump pool and had on a couple of heavy nymphs, I was soon into grayling number 1 on the top dropper so at least they were prepared to come up for the nymph. A second had a long distance release before number 2 soon followed to the same nymph on the dropper. Things were looking good as both grayling had come from the same area of water. Was this a shoal, er no! I didn't hang around here and made my way up to the head pf the pool without anything further. It was great to be out, not many people in the park. A large herd of red deer minding their own business too was a bonus.

I then went down to Mary's Bower and started to work my way back as there is a good run of fast water which I thought the grayling would be looking for. I couldn't go wrong and picked up 6 more grayling all except 1 to the top dropper. What was interesting was that they were picked up in twos from the same area of water so not exactly shoaling but nearly!

I called it a day around 3 as the sun was dipping behind the hills and the temperature was dropping plus my feet were beginning to get cold, so 8 grayling landed. I will have to invest in some neoprene socks! A warming coffee back at the new hut and soon I was warm again but even the earlier success could not tempt me back in.

The longest of the day although bit skinny.