The Back Shift

Bob Morton takes a nice December grayling from a Tay side channel.

The salmon boats are pulled up for the winter and the river is left to the hardy grayling fisher for a couple of months, - if the weather gives us a break. We’ve seen some bad autumns in Scotland lately, nothing but rain and high water, and some destructive floods.  But if it holds off for a couple of weeks and we get a frosty period, it’s one of the best times to be on the water. You get the place pretty much to yourself and, better yet, can get some superb fishing.

In fact, some of these December days are better than you get in a Scottish summer. The air is cool and fresh, tinged the nostalgic smell of rotting leaves and wood smoke.  The fishing itself is more deliberate, with none of the flurries of action of a brief hatch of olives.  You can set out a bit later, maybe enjoy a full breakfast on the road before hitting the river.  The fish don’t usually get going until afternoon anyway.  Or if they do, it doesn’t matter.

The old Red Tag is still a superb winter grayling ‘bug’.

If you’ve done your homework during the trout season, you’ll have staked out a good grayling run or two.  And you’ll have your special grayling box loaded with weighted nymphs and bugs. The Czech nymphs are standard issue but I favour the good old Red tag, myself. With a gold bead head.  I like a good bright red wool tag too, fluorescent red, not orange or pink. This fly never fails when I find the fish.  I’ll usually put on two of them, maybe eighteen inches apart.  If the water’s fast I’ll use two bead heads.  If medium to slow, one bead head Red Tag on the bottom and another beadless fly above.  Sometimes I’ll place these flies even closer together, if the fish aren’t ‘feeding up’ at all. That and a wool indicator and I’m good to go.  Simple but deadly.  My usual trout outfit, a weight 5 or 6 rod and floating line, does nicely.  The important things to remember are a flask, and your thermal underwear.