The Yorkshire Dales are renowned throughout England for the Grayling
fishing available on the River Wharfe, River Ure,
River Nidd, River Ribble and River Swale. The best known
of these, as far as grayling fly fishing is concerned, is the River Ure. In
particular the many miles between West Tanfield and Aysgarth. This area has
the cream of the grayling fishing and at times it is hard to believe that a
river can sustain so many grayling. The other Yorkshire Dales rivers named
above all hold good stocks of grayling if you know where to look. The best
of them is the River Nidd, which has very good stocks of grayling, though
these tend to be slightly smaller than the grayling of the Ure.
The Yorkshire Dales rivers provide the perfect habitat
for grayling and grayling fly fishing and they extend the flyfishers year
right through the autumn and winter. In effect this only gives us 10 days,
from March 15th to March 24th (in North Yorkshire - as seasons vary
throughout England) when we are unable to fish the rivers for brown trout or
grayling. Grayling are caught all year round and a day on any of these
rivers, at any time of the year, will usually result in the capture of a few
fish. The best time of year for grayling fly fishing is from September to December
when they are at their most active and feeding hard throughout the day. The
dry fly fishing during early autumn when grayling are rising to aphids and pale wateries can be simply superb, though not easy for the newcomer to
grayling fishing because of the speed of the rise, but very exciting and
often frustrating.
The dry fly fishing tapers off into December when we
need to employ other methods to catch grayling on the bottom of the river.
There is always the occasional day during winter when the grayling will defy
all odds and still rise to a fly, but these days are few and far between.
With the onset of the colder winter weather we turn to Czech Nymphing,
or 'bugging' as it is also known, and the 'duo' or 'trio'
to get our flies down to 'the zone'. We search every pool thoroughly to find
the winter grayling, using rivercraft and experience to determine where they
will be lying, but in all honesty they are not usually too far away from
their summer lies.
Grayling are an ideal quarry for the inexperienced fly fisher as they are
more tolerant of an anglers presence than the brown trout; in broken water they can be caught
almost under your feet! Unlike the brown trout they will not bolt for cover
at the first sight of an angler, but generally move away slowly whilst continuing
to feed.
If
you don't catch as many grayling as you think you should, or you want to
learn some of the more 'advanced techniques' to catch grayling why not have a
days grayling tuition and guiding with me on a Yorkshire Dales river. This
might just open up your own river and make you look at it in a completely
different light on future trips. A days grayling fishing with me may be
particularly suitable for those anglers who ‘collect’ grayling rivers.
Please take a look at the relevant pages for details of grayling fishing breaks and
grayling fishing courses.
