THE
BIG QUESTION
Dry fly or nymph for big grayling.?
JOHN GODDARD argues the case
Every year towards the end of September
I used to feel very sad as the river trout fishing drew
to a close, but that was a long time ago before the
Lady of the Stream - the grayling - seduced me and drew
me under her spell. These days I look forward to October
and November as on most of our rivers in the south of
England the grayling fishing is at its peak. Normally
during these two months we often experience good hatches
of upwinged flies, mainly medium or large dark olive,
with hatches peaking around midday. When such hatches
occur some great sport is usually assured as I find
that at this time of year the grayling seem to be more
willing to rise than the trout. Whether this applies
this year remains to be seen, as this year - at least
down south - we have encountered the poorest hatches
I have ever experienced in all the years I have been
fishing.
Day after day throughout this season we have seen very
few fish rising and often the numbers of flies hatching
could be counted on two hands. Most of the fly fishers
I have met throughout the year have confirmed this yet
nobody seems to be able to account for this lack of
fly. It seems particularly odd as it is now many years
since the rivers, particularly our chalkstreams, have
been in such good condition and so full of water. We
have recently had so much rain over the past two years,
much of it heavy and prolonged, that most of our streams
have been thoroughly scoured which means that most of
the silt has been removed, leaving wonderful bright
golden gravel and the increased flow has meant that
many of the important weeds that are so important to
the propagation of fly life such as Ranunculus have
made a substantial comeback - yet no fly! No one I have
spoken to seems to know the reason for this, but I suspect
it may be due to the torrents of water that have poured
down these streams recently which have washed away most
of the immature nymphs and pupae. In conformation of
this theory the only good hatches of fly we have experienced
last year were hatches of the large Mayfly Ephemera
danica and, as the nymphs of this species live in little
tunnels in the bed of the stream, these were obviously
unaffected by the floods of water.
Assuming we do experience reasonable haches of fly again
this autumn and do find a modicum of rising grayling,
should we - if we want big grayling - concentrate on
fishing the dry fly or the nymph? In my experience,
really big grayling - those close to two pounds and
upwards - seldom rise to flies on the surface unless
there is an exceptionally good hatch. Even then, though,
there may be odd exceptions, as I can still recall clearly
a red letter morning I had with Bernard Cribbins, when
there were but few flies hatching. In the short space
of less than two hours we hooked and returned nearly
40 grayling between us - most of which were over a pound,
while five of them were over two pounds, with the heaviest
weighing a grand 2lb 14oz. Furthermore, three of the
five specimens were taken on the dry fly.
The decision whether to fish dry fly or nymph depends
first of all upon there being enough surface activity
to warrant using a dry fly - if there is it is then
the choice of the individual fly fisher to decide. Personally,
I think it is more fun and certainly more challenging
to take grayling on the dry fly as opposed to fishing
a nymph. On the other hand if it is both quantity and
quality that is sought, then there is little doubt that
in the hands of a competent nymph fisher this method
is far more lethal. Apart from the above, though, there
is one other situation which must be taken into account.
Much as I love my dry-fly fishing, if one is fortunate
to have access to a stream of sparkling, clear water
on a sunny day where with a stealthy approach one can
actually observe shoals of grayling. It is often possible
with a nymph to pick out individuals in the shoal and
remove them one by one; in my opinion this is the creme
de la creme of grayling fishing. I think most fly fishers
would agree with me that if you want really big grayling
you should fish a nymph. How should you proceed and
which are the most effective nymphs?
First of all let me point out that I am a great believer
in fishing as small a fly as possible, whether they
are nymphs or dry flies. Most of the books written on
grayling fishing favour dry flies in sizes 16 and 14
and in some cases even 12. My favourite dry flies for
grayling are a grey bodied Sparkle Dun, a Super Grizzly
Emerger or a small winged GRHE all dressed on size 18
hooks. I have also had considerable success recently
fishing very small emerger patterns on size 20 hooks.
In the past when nymph fishing, I tended to favour such
patterns as Sawyer's Grayling Bug or Pheasant Tail Nymph
or even heavily leaded Shrimp patterns mostly dressed
on hooks size 14 or 12. But for the past 4 or 5 years
I have enjoyed more success with various gold-head patterns
and my own PVC Nymphs fished on as small a hook as the
water conditions permit. While grayling will sometimes
rise to nymphs passing above them, a nymph fished at
the level they are lying is usually much more effective.
I have found that in shallow water grayling tend to
lie tight on the bottom, whilst in deep runs or pools
they are just as likely to be found in midwater as on
the bottom. It is therefore a question of fishing as
small a nymph as possible that will get down to the
level at which they are lying. With my PVC Nymphs in
sizes 18, 16 and 14 you are rather restricted to fairly
shallow or slow flowing water, so in deep or fast flowing
water up to now I have favoured Goldheads. These I always
dress on long shank hooks sizes 18 and l6 for 2mm and
3mm beads or size 14 for the 4mm beads. I reccommended
the use of long shank gold heads a couple of years ago
and find them much more effective than those dressed
on standard hooks, as I believe that the fish tend to
think these are some form of sedge pupae and dressed
on long shank hooks they look more like the average
natural pupae which are often up to nearly an inch in
length.
I firmly believe that the smaller the nymph the more
effective it is, but this poses a problem when fishing
deep or very fast water as it is then necessary to fish
a much heavier pattern to get down to where the fish
are lying, which up to recently meant to keep the dressing
in proportion, one had to use larger hooks. I am delighted
to advise that this no longer applies as fairly recently
some new beads appeared on the market which have overcome
the problem. These are tungsten beads in bright silver,
which seem even more attractive to the fish and are
much heavier size for size than gold or copper beads.
They are available from Orvis in similar sizes 3/32",
l/8", 5/32", and 3/16". This means I
now have a nymph which I will call a 'Silver Head' that
I can now dress with the smaller tungsten bead on a
16 or even 18 long shank hook that will sink faster
than any standard patterns of at least twice the size.
I dress these like the old Gold head, with a body of
Gold-ribbed Hare's Ear or a new variation which so far
has proved even more succesful which utilises a very
sparse dubbing of Veniard's new Glister sparkle dubbing
in gold olive over the top of the hare's ear. Incidentally,
I still use gold or copper heads as well as the new
tungsten heads, as between them they give me a much
greater range of sink rates size for size.
Finally, I should like to recount an interesting situation
that illustrates the importance of fishing your nymph
at the right depth for the fish to take it. In this
instance, I located four big grayling lying in a very
fast run over bright gravel just below a bridge. The
run was a little over five feet deep and they were feeding
a foot or so off the bottom. By casting well upstream
I was able to fish my smallest tungsten pattern almost
down to their level, and after half a dozen casts hooked,
landed and returned one of them which was a very nice
grayling of about1 3/4lb. For the next hour I fished
for the other three and had no luck - yet time and time
again I would see one or other of them lift slightly
and turn to the silver head - or in some cases even
follow it downstream - but they just would not take.
I was about to give up, but fortunately decided to try
them with a bigger and heavier silver head. This was
a 5/32" bead dressed on a size 14 hook and it sank
like a stone, so it trundled down past them just off
the bottom. For some reason they could not resist it
fished at this level, and within the next ten minutes
I had caught and released all three grayling, the best
of which was well over the magical two pounds.
Excerpt
from article taken from Sept/Oct 2001 issue of Fly
Fishing and Fly Tying.
John Goddard is
a regular cotributor to Fly Fishing and Fly Tying
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A big grayling on the nymph for the author.
Precious metal: Small and medium silver tungsten Gold-ribbed
Hare's Ear Nymphs.
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