A Great Session with Grayling

The lovely river Frome, a chalk stream rises in the west Dorset, then flows in an easterly direction into Poole Harbour, an area well known to those who served in the Marines. As chalk streams go, I rate the Frome very highly, even more so this year when most chalk streams have had little flow with low levels. This river had a reasonable flow rate over lovely clean gravel. How I would love to manage this river, I defiantly wouldn't stock, relying only on the wild fish.

This season I've had a few fishing trips to the river at Pallington near Dorchester, situated not far from Novelist and Poet Thomas Hardy's cottage, a writer that truly captured the essence of the Dorset countryside, and its people. Thomas Hardy passed away in 1928 leaving a wealth of literature for English speaking people to enjoy. How I would have loved to have been alive in Hardy's time. Simon and Tini Pomaroy, have been most gracious hosts on several occasions, making me most welcome in that time honoured ritual with a mug of tea. They have let me roam and fish either from the bank side or by wading this delightful chalk stream. Simon is the man who gave us the Stonze, lets us never forget, we as anglers and naturalists have a responsibility not to cause harm to the environment. Hence the use of the Stonze and not lead weights.

The Fruits of Field and Hedgerow

September is one of the most delightful months in the calendar, a month I look upon as being the start of autumn. Swallow are getting ready for their hazardous migration to Africa, the young broods will have already left on their long journey south. In the fields and hedgerows, I will find mushrooms, sloes, elder berries, hazel nuts, blackberries and apples. In my book There is nothing nicer than apple and blackberry pudding, cooked in a pudding cloth and boiled for some hours, then served with lashings of custard. Sadly these days I cannot eat this delightful desert.

As I walk along the river bank, I see spiders webs covered in tiny droplets of moisture from the early morning mist, those same droplets will shine like diamonds, as the hazy sun burns off the mist. The green round stemmed Bulrushes, sway to and fro in the current. Bulrushes must not to be mistaken for Reedmace with its large brown head, looking like a huge Havana cigar. Everywhere Himalayan Balsam is shedding its seeds and damaging the river bank.

Hawthorn bushes glow red with a huge amount of berries, which have appeared much earlier this year, than for some years past. in the hedgerows, squirrels and dormice will feed on the hazel nuts, while Goldfinches are about in profusion feeding on the seeds from the thistle and bulrush heads. I am on the hunt for a big grayling, a fish over 3lbs. In July I watched a giant among grayling. Peering into the gin clear water, I could see what appeared to be a large black shadow, as a small cloud moved across the sky, the light improved. It was then I noticed a slight movement as the shadow slowly turned into a huge fish. No a giant fish. The dorsal fin suddenly become erect. It was a grayling, nearer 4lbs than 3lbs. It was laying in a deep channel between swaying water crowfoot. Willow trees over hung the water, stopping me from getting a bait or fly to this monster. It was certainly safe from this hunter in its watery kingdom.

Fly and Bait

This season I've caught some wonderful fish from this Wessex chalk stream, beautiful wild brown trout, occasional sea trout and some cracking grayling. Klinkhammer's size 12's and 14's, Grey Wulff size 16's and 14's. and a small Sedge pattern have been my successful dry flies. Either the last hour of daylight or first hour of darkness have been the most successful times for the brown trout. Though having said that, I did catch a nice trout, around noon in bright sunshine.

My sea trout were caught using either a size 12 Teal blue and silver or size 10 Medicine fly designed by Hugh Falkus. The few fly caught grayling I had were on weighted Richard Walker Mayfly nymph or Klinkhammer special. Stret-pegging with corn has been the most successful way of catching Frome grayling. What did amaze me is how aggressive grayling can be, on one occasion solicitor Martin Salisbury from Leyland Lancashire and me watched a 2lb plus grayling move in on the bait dropper, where it grabbed the corn as it spilled out of the dropper. Once all the corn had gone, it nudged the feeder hoping more corn would flow out. It was this bait that caused the downfall of so many fish. But it wasn't easy. There were days when the fish were so exasperating, that I wanted to tear my hair out.

Float Tackle for Stret-Pegging

Stret-pegging is different from laying on, Stret-pegging is a method where you search the swim, while laying-on as the term implies. The the bait is laid on the bottom with the float set at an angle. It was often called shot legereing. The rod I choose to use for bait fishing is a 13 foot model, which I helped design several years ago, its not a tippy rod, but one that has an all-through action. It's quite capable of handling big fish, 6lb chub and double figure barbel have been caught using this rod. I designated it as a Big fish float rod, built in this country, and not the Far East.

Choosing the right reel for the job is most important, in my book there is only one for float fishing on rivers and stream that will give you a good bait presentation. It's a centre pin, my current centre pin was made by Richard Carter. Richard also made a bonefish reel for my 60th birthday. I then promptly went off to the Bahamas for six weeks where my first fish weighed 8lbs. Back to the grayling, I load my reel with about forty yards of 3lb clear Gamma from the United States, I then attach twenty feet of 2.6 lb Seaguar fluorocarbon. Over the years I have tried several brands of fluorocarbon, but there are only two brands I could recommend Seaguar and Frog Hair. The hook was a size 14 barbless Pallatrax hook, needle sharp. My float was an Avon balsa on quill taking 6 bb shot pinched on the line some 4 inches from the hook. The shot were close to the hook, as the fish were so aggressive, and I didn't want a deep hooked fish.

Quality Grayling

During my latest expedition I caught an estimated 25 fish, nine over 2lbs. Please don't get the impression its easy fishing, it isn't. You have to work for the fish, a lot of time is spent slowly walking the banks peering intently through polarised glasses into the gin clear water, Sometimes waiting an hour for the weed to sway clear of a small gravel channel in the hope some fish were waiting to be caught. At times it was very exasperating. I would often spend an hour peering intently into the clear water, as the swaying weed moved across the current, an opening would appear. Having spotted two or three fish a fish, I would make myself ready to cast. Suddenly the weed would return to cover the area, ten minutes later the weed would clear and I would get enough time to drop in a baited hook. But it was great fun.

My biggest fish weighed 2-8-0, I spotted this fish between two beds of swaying water crowfoot in about five feet of water, upstream the river flowed fast over a shallow gravel bar, it then swirled, twisted and gurgled as the fast turbulent water swept downstream round a left hand bend. On the opposite bank there was a pool of quiet water. Between the fast swirling water and the quiet pool, a crease or seam had been created. In the crease I could see two good fish holding station. Chucking a few grains of corn upstream, I watched it pass through the swim, the fish moved across the current to eat, then it was back to the crease. My total catch of 2lb plus fish weighed in at 2-6-0 2-4-0 and 2-1-0 on a fly. The other six fish all caught on corn weighed 2-4-0 2-3-0 2-2-0 2-7 0 2-8-0 and 2-6-0.

I decided my best approach was to move off upstream, enter the river then wade slowly downstream to the quiet pool. Having plumbed the swim, I moved the float another three feet up the line. Baiting with two grains of corn, a cast downstream, some four feet upstream of the fish. Five minutes later, I lifted the rod then allowed the bait to move a bit further downstream. Still no attention from the fish, I repeated the manoeuvre twice more. Success, the float moved across the flow, I tightened into a good fish which shot off downstream. Not wanting to try and pull a hard fighting twisting grayling upstream through the fast turbulent water and swaying water crowfoot. I moved downstream to a quiet bit of water, where I was able to bring the fish to the net. After weighing and a quick picture it was returned. Hopefully to grow into that coveted three pounder. See pictures