The Journal of The Grayling Society · 4 Grayling – Spring/Summer 2019 Grayling – Spring/Summer...

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Volume 27 - Number 10 • Spring/Summer 2019

The Grayling SocietyThe Journal of

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The Official Journal of The Grayling Society

ISSN 1476-0061

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© The Grayling Society, 2019

The copyright of all material in this edition of ‘Grayling’ remains with the Authors, or theGrayling Society, and may not be reproduced, by any means whatsoever, without thecopyright holders written permission. The Grayling Society and members of the ExecutiveCommittee accept no responsibility for the accuracy of any article or advertisement hereinand no guarantee is given for any product or service being offered. Contributions, includingphotographs or illustrations are always welcome, but the Society assumes no responsibilityfor the safety of contributions, although all reasonable care will be taken. Views expressedby contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Grayling Society. All enquiriesabout articles in ‘Grayling’ should be addressed to the Editor.

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Cover Illustration

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“Grayling” by South African artistGavin Erwin

C O N T E N T S

Editorial Bob Male 2

John Brennand Obituary Robin Mulholland 4

Symposium 2019 - The Fishing Rod Calbrade 5

The Chairman’s View Rob Hartley 8

Midges and Grayling Dave Southall 10

Committee and Area 6/7 Changes 13

Alaska Revisited George Ashton 14

A Wonderful Day on the Frome with Mr John Bailey Paul Andermahr 22

Area 10 Fishing Day Alan Swann 25

Aphids and Grayling Dave Southall 27

Putting Research Findings into Everyday Angling Practice Conservation Physiology - Recent Catch and Release Research. Addendum Les Jervis 30

New Grayling Research Papers Stanislaw Cios 35

Keep’em Wet Keepemwet Fishing Science Ambassadors 36

The Irwell Stocking of Grayling Rod Calbrade 38

Grayling and the River Irwell Malcolm Greenhalgh 39

Grayling Research in Sweden Harry Salmgren 41

How to Overcome the Fear of Loss Dr Alex Wessolowski 42

Grayling Prize Alan Ayre 44

The Silver Lady and Old Father Thames Willie Miller 48

Tartan Ladies Arkadi de Rakoff 50

Crossword 53

Officers of the Society 54

Rod Calbrade is standing down as GeneralSecretary but will continue to co-ordinate theSymposia. Our good wishes go to them all asthey step up to take on new responsibilities.Have a great season in 2019, and enjoy yourfishing wherever it takes you. Bob Male.

Over £14,000 pollution penalty forStaffordshire farmB&M Elkin & Son Ltd were fined followingpollution of the Gayton Brook, Staffordshire,where 3000 fish perished.

Pollution at Gayton Brook

In a prosecution brought by the EnvironmentAgency, B&M Elkin & Son Ltd (the Company) ofHall Farm, Hilderstone, Staffordshire pleadedguilty to three charges of breachingenvironmental regulations following twopollution incidents and failing to provideadequate effluent storage.The first incident occurred in Sept 2015following a report of farm effluent dischargingto the Gayton Brook, Milwich for several days.Investigators discovered that farm slurry hadescaped from a gap in the storage pit. Theincident caused effluent to run across the farmand into the brook, which was found to begreen/brown in colour with a white foam, witha foul odour present. Approximately 3000 fishwere killed in this incident.A second incident occurred on 30 June 2016,when effluent entered Wheatlow Brook, whichwas found to be brown and frothy inappearance.

Hall Farm is within a Nitrate Vulnerable Zonewhich means the farm must comply with strictslurry storage capacity. Environment Agencyofficers advised the company that there wasinsufficient storage capacity and that they werein breach of the Nitrate Pollution PreventionRegulations 2010.The company was fined £7,000, and orderedto pay £7,100 costs and a victim surcharge of£120.In mitigation, consideration had been giventhat the business has been operating for 30years without incident. The company had alsocooperated with the Environment Agency andpleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.In addition, B&M Elkin & Sons Ltd hadvoluntarily paid £1,000 to the local wildlifetrust and had spent over £20,000 inimprovements and remediation at their site.The Environment Agency Officer leading theinvestigation said:These were entirely preventable seriousincidents, which led to pollution of farmlandand watercourses in the area, resulting in thedeath of thousands of fish. The fact that thefirst incident was subsequently repeated gaveus little choice but to pursue a prosecution.” I hope this case sends a strong message tothe farming industry that their activities havethe potential for serious environmentalimpacts, and we take action when necessary.If farmers need help understanding theregulations that apply to them, theEnvironment Agency are available to help andcan give advice on how to prevent farmpollution, just give us a call on 03708 506 506.

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Editorial Bob Male

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We have an international edition this timearound, with contributions from our Europeanmembers as well as from the home beats, andwith a great range of topics.Our cover picture is by kind permission ofGavin Erwin, a South African artist whose vividand dynamic fish portraits have a world-widefollowing. I first saw Gavin’s work on Facebook,and “liked” them in both senses of the word.When I approached him for permission to useone of his images, he was very happy to help,and so we have a bright and vigorous image tosee us into the new season.If you would like to see more of Gavin’s work,go to https://www.gavinerwin.co.za . He worksin acrylics and pastels, and uses felt-tip pensfor some of his colourful images, and much ofhis work is available as prints.

Periodic troughSpring has sprung down here in Wiltshire,and our grayling started spawning in midMarch – early for us, but not unusually so. Onthe Wylye we seem to have hit one of thoseperiodic troughs in the grayling population. Myown club’s catches are down and I hear thesame thing from other anglers and clubs,including those who electro fish and makeserious population counts. It looks as if the 2+and 3+ cohorts are very under-represented;these are the 8 to 14 inch fish that are the“bread and butter” of much grayling fishingdown here – lively and colourful, and muchappreciated. These fish would have been spawned in thesprings of 2014 and 2015; both years had highspring flows, especially 2014, which would haveseriously affected fry survival. This year theriver is at a healthy level with good steadyflows. I hope that those fine grayling busilyspawning last month meet with greater

success, and abundant healthy young fish willbe able to grow on and replenish our stocks.I can’t leave the topic of grayling populationwithout referring again to the cormorantthreat. Catchment licences to cull cormorantsseem to be out of proportion to the threat. Myclub has 7 miles of water on the Wylye, and weare allowed to shoot 3 birds per year! I feel thatthe only way to restore any sort of balance onmany of our rivers is to remove protection fromthese invasive birds, and put them on thegeneral licence, along with wood pigeon andother pests. This would allow river keepers andother responsible people to control thecormorant threat locally, using whatevermethods, lethal and non-lethal, that wouldproperly protect vulnerable fisheries. Ournational policies so far have not made anymeaningful impact on the problem. Let’s pushour national representatives to agitate for moreflexibility, and start the process of changingperceptions about these destructive birds.

Committee and Area 6/7 changes

Members who read the Newsletter – all of you,I’m sure – will have seen that I plan to standdown as Editor this year. This isn’t farewell – Iwill be around for a while yet, hopefullyinducting my replacement into the role. I still enjoy the task of publishing theSociety’s Journal, Newsletter and GraylingAnglers’ Guide, and must take this opportunityto sincerely thank all those who contribute andmake it all possible. Without our memberssupport, their articles, stories and photographs,we would have no publications, and I confidentlyexpect that the contributions will continue toflow, whoever is the lucky Editor.Other changes at the Society include a newGeneral Secretary, John Walker, and he willintroduce himself later in this edition. Areas 6and 7 have been combined as Area 6, and GlynWilliams will be the new Area Secretary.He will also introduce himself in this edition.

Copy deadline for the Autmn issue isJuly 15th 2019

AGM & Symposium 2019

Booking Form is at the back of this issue

Book today!NB. No b ookings can be

re ceived after

21st September

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John was a very early member of the GraylingSociety, a close friend and fishing companionof Reg Righyni. He fished for grayling, largelyby trotting in Scotland and the North and byfly fishing in the South where he often fishedwith his friend the late Ken Bramer.Whentrotting he developed considerable skill in theWallis cast. From Reg he contracted what hecalled a disease, the collection of graylingrivers, rivers in which he had caught at leastone grayling. This started with main rivers andextended to tributaries and tributaries oftributaries. The excitement of not knowingwhat was around the next corner or in thenext valley appealed to him as I expect alsodid the research needed to identify targetstreams and their owners. He accepted that alot of research would sometimes only lead to asmall grayling from a small stream but thatwas sufficient to satisfy him and sometimes hehad a surprise! His list of rivers was published,alongside an article which he wrote in aGrayling Society publication “A GraylingAnglers Guide” in 2013. Since that time headded 3 rivers in Great Britain, Eas Gobhain (aTeith tributary), Alan Water (a Forth tributary).The Calder (a Ribble tributary), 2 rivers inDenmark, the Skjern and the Guden and 1 inthe Czech Republic, the Trnava. This produceda grand total of 160 rivers, which is aremarkable number.

His PresidencyHe was an active society member, regularlyattending symposiums and taking part indiscussion, always thoughtful and calm andalways kind. John became president in 2009

and served until 2013. During his presidencyhe also became a trustee of the GraylingResearch Trust so helping to maintain theclose bond which has always existed betweenthe Trust and the Society.John was a proud Yorkshire man born inBradford but spending much of his early yearsin Leeds. Having studied English, History andLatin to A level he won a scholarship to King’sCollege London to study medicine! Here hemet Liz to whom he was happily married formore than fifty years. He qualified in 1959 withan ambition to become a GP in Yorkshire butafter a six month spell as a house surgeon inthe ENT department at King’s he pursued acareer as an ENT surgeon. Liz and John’sdaughter, Janet was born in 1965. He wasappointed to his consultant post in Perth in1968 and when asked why he had chosenPerth in particular he replied that he knewthat the fishing would be good! His expertisetook him to Dundee and to cottage hospitals inCrieff, Blairgowrie and Pitlochry all of whichhave a fishy ring to them. His house in BromptonTerrace in Perth was ideally situated for shortvisits to the Tay when the tide was right.John shared many common interests withLiz, music, culture and in particular theoutdoors both being very keen birdwatchers.Liz and Janet both gave up fishing at an earlystage. Janet told me that she gave up aftercatching a salmon on the Spey because she didnot wish there to be any element ofcompetition in the family! Janet is now aConsultant Obstetrician in Glasgow married toan Icelander who is a salmon fisherman so shemay well take it up again. John took a greatinterest in current affairs and was a prolificwriter of letters to The Times. He evenachieved publication in the “bottom right” ofthe letters page which prompted amischievous smile.Those of us who were privileged to haveknown him will remember him as a modestand unassuming man, always fair andincredibly polite, a very generous man whoalways wanted the best for people. It was agreat pleasure to have known him; he was inevery sense a gentleman. Robin Mulholland

Symposium 2019 – The Fishing

We last fished in this Area in 2012 and atthat Symposium the then Area 4 SecretaryRoger Smith launched his book “Flyfishingthe Welsh Borderlands”. It is an excellentread and has all the information you couldwant for fishing the Welsh border rivers fromthe Dee in the North to the Usk and Wye inthe South. Naturally, a large part of the bookcovers the area around Llandod and, as LouisNoble says in the foreword, “Nothing hasbeen omitted – we see a wide array of bookswhich hold valuable information on theregion, the fishing,and fly dressingcharacters, a trulyimpressivecollection ofpertinent flypatterns andhistorical notes onthe region’sfishing. As if thatwasn’t enough wehave been given alist of flyfishingopportunities,materials for

dressing the important patterns and, to mygreat delight, a selection of poems relevant toborderland Streams.”. It is published by Coch-y-Bonddu Books and, as usual, Paul Morganwill have stand at the Symposium, althoughyou may want to buy a copy beforehand tocome well armed for the fishing part of thevisit. As many of you know Paul runs anexcellent on-line operation:wwwe.anglebooks.com although a visit to theshop is Machynlleth is well worth it. The rivers we'll be fishing are mainly theWye, Irfon and Ithon plus some rods on theArrow and Lugg with much of the waterunder the control of the Wye and UskFoundation

The River WyeRising on the slopes of Pumlumon atPlynlimon in the Cambrian Mountains, theRiver Wye (Afon Gwy in Welsh) flows forapproximately 152 miles in a generally southeasterly direction. It is the fifth longest riverin the UK passing through Builth Wells, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford, Ross-on-Wye andMonmouth, before joining the Severn Estuaryat Chepstow.

Robin Mulholland on the River Wye at Abernant

John Brennand 1934-2018

Rod Calbrade

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Trotting on the Irfon

The river is host an array of wildlife and isboth a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) formost of its length. The Wye’s main tributariesinclude (in a downstream order) the Elan,Ithon, Irfon, Lugg and Monnow.The Wye was voted the nation’s favouriteriver in 2010. However, like most rivers in theUK, it has faced an increasing array of issuesand threats in recent years. Extensive workhas been carried out by the Foundation andits partners to tackle these.

The River IrfonThe River Irfon flows from the slopes ofBryn Garw in the Cambrian mountains,through the Abergwesyn Valley, past NantIrfon National Nature Reserve, and down toLlanwrtyd Wells before joining the River Wyeat Buith Wells. Source: Wye and Usk FoundationOliver Burch, a local Angling Trust gameangling coach and a Wye and Usk Foundationrecommended guide, has written a goodpiece on tackling these waters which will bein the next issue of “Grayling”. Also, you canfollow his excellent monthly “Trout andGrayling Report” on the Wye and Usk

Foundation website for reports on catchesand successful methods and, as it goes backquite a few years, it will help in planningyour trip and telling you what you mayexpect, in terms of tactics and fly selection.If you need to get in touch with him he canbe contacted on 07825 410800 or at hiswebsite:www.wyevalleyflyfishing.com

W.U.F fishing Passport SchemeThis well known and excellent service has 200plus waters to fish on a day ticket basis whichcan be contacted at the W.U.F. website or on01874 711714 if you are planning to organizesome fishing before or after the Symposium.

Steve’s fly patch

Court of Noke in the mist

River Arrow 2lbs 4oz Grayling

River Arrow Old flies good as ever - GSB and Sturdy's Fancy

River Irfon Grayling

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The Chairman’s ViewsRob Hartley

angler to carry the net and fish back). Then,obviously, the fish was removed from the netmeasured and returned. On two occasions,we timed from the net first being lifted fromthe water to the fish being returned. On bothoccasions, the fish was out of the water forover 80 seconds.If the authors of the report wererecommending that the Grayling should notbe out of the water for more than 10 seconds,it really does seem appropriate thoseorganising these fishing competitions need toreassess how to measure success of theangler. If it is taken as read that competitionsshould continue, the thoughts of the three

others on the bank that day were that thecontroller should observe and confirm that afish had been brought to the net andreleased. No attempt made to measure,purely to record the number caught.To repeat, this isn’t a criticism of competitionfly-fishing, however, it is a criticism of themethods used to record. On the photographaccompanying this, I have obscured the facesof the angler and the controller. I gaveconsiderable thought as to whether I shouldsubmit the photograph but when you see thewidth of the river, you can understand whythe fish is out of the water for the length oftime it was.

a. Your current standing order at your bank for the GraylingSociety needs to be cancelled by you. We cannot do this for you.

b. We need your email address, as this will be your usernamefor the membership system.

c. There is a guide on logging in to the system for the firsttime in the news section of the website.* If you have problems setting up a password for the firsttime and it says “Invalid Username or password” then theSociety hasn’t got the correct email address for you.Contact the Membership Secretary to fix this.

d. Ideally we would prefer you set up a Direct Debit with theSociety as this again makes our administrative job mucheasier. You can also use credit or debit cards via Paypal,though this is more expensive for the Society. However, if youdon’t wish to use any of these methods please just send acheque to the Membership Secretary.

If you struggle with computing...e. If you struggle with computing please call the MembershipSecretary; he can set up a Direct Debit for you, you just needyour Account number, Name and Sort Code.

f. Every year we will send you an email asking you to confirmyour details to “LoveAdmin.com.” and stating that on January1st you will be debited your membership fee.

g. You will get notification from GoCardless that the GraylingSociety well take funds. You are given a grace period if youwish to cancel.

h. You can also set up a Direct Debit through Paypal, but themoney is taken immediately we issue renewals.

It really is as simple as that.

Paypal payments will appear on you statement as Payhere Ltd.

Direct Debits will appear as Gocardless Grayling Society –unfortunately many banks only display 10 characters on thestatements, you often can see more if you look online.

If you have any queries either contact yourArea Secretary or the Membership Secretary,

Tim Taylor, email: [email protected]

or phone him on 02072543704

Dear Members,In line with most other Angling and Conservationorganisations, we are in the process of putting ourMembership database online. This will makeadministration and re-joining far easier for you andthe Society, as well as keeping us in line with

requirements to comply with new Data Protectionlaws, guaranteeing you control and security over yourpersonal data. Most of you have successfullyswitched from our old system to the new on-line one,but there are still some who have not.

The switchover took place in December 2018 and if you have NOT madethe switch, we will need you to take the following action:

This is a reminder about the online membership system that wehave adopted. Please read it carefully if you have not yet switched.

MEMBERSHIP SYSTEM

Firstly, this is no way intended to be acriticism of competition fishing per se. Mostof us know that improvements in ourtechniques, flies and tackle have largelycome through competition anglers. Whilst Ihave never entered a fly-fishing competition,as the saying goes, some of my best friendshave! Before anyone comments, I also realiseI am probably not good enough anyway!When Rod Calbrade, as the editor of thisjournal, first statedhe would no longerpublish photographsof anglers lifting thedorsal fin, itprovoked someadverse comments.Then Bob, thecurrent editor,recently added thathe was unhappywith the out ofwater photographsused. In Novemberof last year, I wasforwarded apublished paper onthe effects ofholding Grayling outof the water atdifferent air temperatures. I understand thatthis paper is to be reviewed more fully by oneof the Grayling research trust but, from anon-scientific point of view the basicmessage was keep the fish in the water asmuch as possible. I, like many of you, havebeen attempting to practice this more andmore in recent years. I purchased one ofthose rubberised nets at the British Fly fairlast year, as I have not always been happywith the more traditional net in terms ofdamage to the protective slime and scales onGrayling. In the past, I either used SteveSkuce’s suggestion of unhooking underwaterusing the rod tip or, when standing in the

river, unhooking the fish whilst in the waterat my side. The net has made, I think, animprovement in reducing any trauma to thefish (other than the fairly obvious trauma ofbeing hooked in the first place).As it happened, the weekend after seeingthe report, myself and two other societymembers went to one of the largest fishingcompetitions held in the UK. Grayling werethe target species and in previous years, over

1600 Grayling were caught by various teams.For those of you unfamiliar, as I was, withhow the recording system works, each angleror pair of anglers has a controller on thebank, who measures and records each catch.The measurement is done using a section ofrain guttering with a scale in centimetres. Onthe day we visited the competition, we sawthe teams fishing in mid water. Upon hookinga Grayling, they were netted (all using thetraditional style of coarse nettingincidentally) and then the angler waded tothe bank to have it measured. Most times weobserved this, the net was held out of thewater (presumably to make it easier for the



I have caught plenty of grayling on tinyBuzzer pupae, including several over 2lb,topped by one from Driffield Beck of 2lb 10ozthat refused an array of bigger flies, butreadily took a size 26 Black Buzzer pupa.Many have been caught from my localstocked rainbow lake, Wansford Lake, a Ushaped settling pond for the local trout farmwhich is fed from the Driffield Canal, a partof the local chalk stream system. The lakehas a distinct flow and holds a smallpopulation of resident grayling that grow toover 2lb. The primary food source in the lakeis Chironomids due to the accumulated siltthat covers the bed of most of the lake. Whenthe water is clear it is possible to sight fishfor the grayling which much of the time, likethe rainbows, become totally preoccupiedwith feeding on tiny midge pupae. At suchtimes a size 24 or smaller Buzzer pupa is thebest way to tempt them.My favourite way of fly-fishing is with dryflies and there are frequent occasions onsome of the waters that I fish when thegrayling get preoccupied on adult Midges.I experienced just such a day in lateNovember 2018 on an industrial river inYorkshire. It was a dull, damp day with themaximum temperature a cool 6 degrees C.On arrival the river looked grey anduninviting but then I saw a single riser on aslow, shallow glide which lifted my spirits. Aclose inspection of the water indicated thatthere were a few microscopic Midge adultstrapped on the surface by the chill air and afew more risers were seen. My two friendsand I needed no more invitation than this toset up with tiny dry flies (Size 24 to 30 CdC

Midge patterns). Thus started one of my bestever dry fly sessions for grayling. We steadilypicked off risers all day. Fly size proved to beimportant and I soon found out that a size 30(Minimalistic Micro Midge or Shuttlecock)would out-fish my usual size 24.When fishing such tiny flies I generally uselong, soft actioned, light line rods (a 10’ 2weight Sunray Volition, a 10’ 6” to 12’ Esoteric2/3 weight 1 in 4 Nymph rod or a 10’ 6” to 11’6” Sunray ZERO) teamed up with a 1 weight, 0weight or Micro Nymph line and a 12 to 14’leader made up of a 7’ taper cut from thebutt of an Essential Fly 12’ 6x copolymerleader (tapering from 0.43mm to about0.2mm) with a small perfection loop at theend to which I attach 5 to 7’ of tippet (0.10 or0.09mm diameter). If I’m fishing subsurfaceand I can’t see the fish I attach a greasedsemi-curly bicoloured indicator between thetapered section and tippet or I apply acoating of fluorescent wax to the end of theleader taper.Buying suitable tiny hooks is a big problem.Some midge hooks are too thin in the wire tocope with decent fish, some are too narrow inthe gape, whilst many have eyes that are toosmall to easily thread through the tippet. Myfavourite hooks are Gamakatsu C12-BM(barbless, big eye, continuous curved hooksavailable in sizes 26 to 30 from the USA) andTiemco 2488s (micro-barbed, straight-eyedgrub hooks now only available in sizes downto 26 and only from the USA in sizes below20). I have found the following useful smallhooks to be available in the UK: Daiichi1110/Orvis Big Eye Dry Fly (identical straighteye, big eye, hooks with a micro-barb and

Midges and Grayling Dave Southall

Grayling love tiny, abundant food items. I’vementioned Aphids in an earlier article, butChironomid Midges, in their larval, pupal andadult stages, can also generate intense,preoccupied feeding. At such times fly sizecan be critical to consistent success, as canthe need for perfect presentation.Whilst Chironomid imitations are standardfare for Stillwater fly fishers and on someUSA tail-water rivers, few river fly fishers inthe UK seem to consider their use, yet bothtrout and grayling regularly feed on larval,pupal and adult stages. In fact the decliningwater quality of many of our troutand grayling rivers is resulting indramatic decline in Ephemerid(Upwing) fly populations and acorresponding increase in thenumbers of Chironomids. There areover 400 UK species of Chironomid(non-biting Midge) and whilst someare as big as 13mm long, most areonly 1 to 5mm long. Colour is veryvariable, ranging through black, grey,red, orange, yellow, olive and green.There are four life stages; egg, larva,pupa and adult, the first three beingaquatic. Virtually every fresh watersupports Midges, from the humblestditch to heavily polluted rivers andfrom small puddles to vast lakes.

Most flyfishers’ picture of a larvalChironomid is the Bloodworm, but in mostspecies the larval colour is not red, but mayvary from yellowish through to green. The redBloodworms are mostly associated withrelatively polluted rivers (where organicpollution reduces dissolved oxygen levels)and where there is anaerobic sediment at thebottom of lakes. The haemoglobin in theirblood helps to extract oxygen from theseoxygen-poor environments. On oneDerbyshire river that I know one of thegrayling hotspots is just below a sewageoutfall where there are plenty of Bloodworms(see Stuart Crofts’ photo). I must confess thatthe only larval imitation that I use forgrayling is a red one, a variation on a patternshown to me by Brian Clarke. The larvae feedon organic detritus, algae, fungi and bacteriaon and near the lake and riverbed. Largelarval populations are found where thesediments are rich in organic matter which isbroken down to methane gas by decomposerorganisms: this results in high populations ofmethane-eating bacteria, food for theBloodworms. Bloodworms have accounted fora few of my grayling including a couple offish of well over 2lb.

Grayling stomach contents from below a sewage outfall (photo by Stuart Crofts)

Grayling caught on a size 20 Bloodworm

Size 28 Wire & UV Resin Buzzer Pupa Size 30 Minimalistic Micro Midges

quite a narrow gap available down to size 26which have the same shank length as thesize 24 Tiemco 2488s), also Daiichi 1120(heavy wire, barbed, grub hook availabledown to size 22) and Daiichi 1130 (light wire,barbed grub hook available down to size 24).My micro-dry flies are all simple CdCpatterns (Minimalistic Micro Midge, IOBOHumpy, Shuttlecock and F Fly). I rarely findvisibility to be a problem because I usuallyfish at short range and with accurate castingI know where my fly will land. Furthermore, Itie them with natural Mallard CdC which isfairly dark: when treated with Roman MoserMiracle Float gel it silhouettes well against alight background and when treated withhydrophobic, fumed silica powder it showsup well against dark backgrounds. If I haveany real problem with seeing my fly I have afew flies tied with fluorescent orange andpink CdC.My Micro Buzzer pupae are tied with ablack 1.5mm tungsten bead for sizes 20 to 24with either a body of 0.09mm colored wiresor stripped peacock quill coated with UV

resin, whilst from size 26 to 30 I just usecoloured 0.09mm wire coated with UV resin.My usual Bloodworm is tied on a Tiemco2488 or Tiemco 260BL size 20 hook with ablack or red 1.5mm tungsten bead-head, redholographic tinsel on the hook shank (coatedwith UV resin) and a ‘tail’ of half thicknessred Flexifloss.Good, drag-free presentation is the biggestproblem with tiny flies and this is facilitatedby the use of long, thin, flexible copolymertippet, plus where necessary appropriateslack line casts. When dry-fly fishing, whenpossible, I prefer a down and across approachrather than casting upstream. I find it fareasier to avoid drag when fishing down andacross by using a slack line cast and trackingof the rod downstream to extend the drift;furthermore the fish then see the fly beforethe tippet and I find I get a higher hook-uprate when fishing with the flow.

If you haven’t given micro-flies andparticularly Midges a try do give them a gowhen the situation is appropriate. I think thatyou’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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Committee and Area 6/7 changes

Glyn Williams Area 6 Secretary

I first joined the Society back in the 1980’sand at that time enjoyed the Welsh Deeimmensely. I was brought up in North Walesand spent many years of my working lifethere and whilst I now live in WorcestershireI should, by the time you read this, be livingin Denbighshire close to the Dee.I have been lucky to have fished in manyCountries both in fresh and saltwater butnow, in retirement, I will concentrate ongame fish. Like many of you who read this,grayling are a particular favourite of mineand I never tire of fishing for them andenjoying the places they take me to.I look forward to contributing to theactivities of the Society as Area 6 Secretaryand to meeting faces old and new. I have twostalwart members to assist me, if needed, inJohn Walker and Louis Noble, and lookforward to meeting many of you on streamduring our arranged events.

Tight lines.Glyn

Approval was given at the committee meeting on 20 January to implement the followingchanges:

As Barrie Davidson retired from the role of Area 7 Secretary at the end of December 2018 thecommittee agreed to integrate Area 7 into Area 6 and Glyn Williams will take up the role ofArea 6 Secretary.Rod Calbrade will retire as General Secretary but take up a new role as SymposiumCoordinator, a job that is becoming more demanding as the Society grows. John Walker willtake over as General Secretary.

John Walker General SecretaryWith time to spare I wanted to get moreinvolved with the things that matter to me -fishing, environmental issues andconservation.I’ve always been impressed at how friendlyand professional the Grayling Society is, sowas pleased to be able to get more involvedas it fit perfectly with what’s important to me.As Area 6 Secretary I met several fellowmembers, made new friends, and became re-acquainted with a few old ones. It wasalways a joy to share experiences, tips andtales during our days out and fish alongsidelikeminded people.I’m moving on to take up the role ofGeneral Secretary and handing Area 6 overto Glyn Williams, who I know will excel, butI’ll still look forward to seeing friends andfellow members during Area 6 events.

Angle with poiseJohn


Amazing Grayling fishing in a very specialplace, Lake Clark National Park, AlaskaIn August 2018 I returned to Alaska to fishfor Arctic Grayling in the Lake Clark NationPark. This article is a follow up on the articlethat was published in the 2016 winter ofedition of “Grayling” (p 37). Five of us travelled from the UK to Alaska.In our group there was Dave Martin, anexperienced fishing guide, who has madeseveral trips to Alaska, Roger Day,who worked with Dave as a flyfishing guide on the Test and theItchen; Bob Perrett and Ian Whytefrom Scotland, both experienced andwell travelled anglers (Bob and Itravelled to Alaska together in 2016)and me (George Ashton). We all met in Reykjavik (Iceland)after flying in from various UKairports and from there travelled toAnchorage together. We spent anight in Anchorage and flew outthe next morning on a one-hour

flight to Port Alsworth in the Lake ClarkNational Park. The scenery was stunningwith an active volcano, snow cappedmountains, glaciers, forests, rivers and the45-mile long Lake Clark. After landing wewere transported by boat the 7 milesacross Lake Clark to the Chulitna Lodge.This was to be our base for the next 6 days.The lodge is located in totally unspoiltwilderness.

The lodge is built in a sheltered bay on theshore of Lake Clark. We slept in rustic butcomfortable log cabins and there was a muchlarger communal cabin. It contained kitchenand dining area where we ate our meals andsocialised of an evening. The food was great and there was plenty ofit. It was first class wholesome food, likeroast beef, roast chicken and a beef pieserved with fresh vegetables and salad andlovely deserts (amazing brownies and peachcobbler). The chef even made us Yorkshirepudding, to make us feel at home. I can be abit fussy about what I eat but the chef lookedafter my needs really well. If you likedsalmon it was always available (it is nettedfrom the lake outside the lodge) as anaddition to what else was on the dinner menu.

The staff at the lodge, were really friendly,nothing was too much trouble. Our groupand the lodge staff sat down to eat togethereach evening, a great way to get to knoweach other. I would not hesitate torecommend the lodge to anyone, to go fishingor as a wilderness retreat.During our 6 day stay at the lodge our mainfocus was fishing for arctic grayling. Wefished the streams and creeks that ran intoLake Clark, the Tazimina River and the veryspecial Secret River. We spent a day travelling around Lake Clarkby boat, fishing a number of rivers and creekswhere they entered the lake. We caught lotsof small to medium sized grayling for themouths of creeks you could jump across. Atone creek three of us caught continuously for

ALSAKA REVISTEDGeorge Ashton

Float plane at Chulitna Lodge

Bay beside Chulitna Lodge

– Chulitna Lodge

G ra y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 9 17G ra y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 916

a couple hours with grayling up to 18”landed. We fishing nymphs, under anindicator and let the flow of the stream carryour nymphs out into the lake. The lake waterwas a milky blue colour from glacial runoffand we fished where the clear water from thecreeks mixed with the coloured lake water.On another day we travelled a long waydown Lake Clark and into Six Mile Lake tofish the Tazimina River. It took over 2 hoursto get there in a fast boat. We fished plasticbeads (to represent salmon eggs) under abobber to catch the rainbows and grayling. Ifound fishing beads a rather cumbersomeway of fishing but it was effective. The beadfixed onto the line with a silicon wedge thatjammed into the hole in the centre of thebead with a bare hook about 2” below thebead. There rig is weighted with shot and alarge ¾” float (bobber) attached fished overdepth. This was the first time some of us hadfished using beads and it was the first time Ihad ever caught a wild rainbow trout. I felt abit sorry for Steve Silber our guide and lodgedirector as he drove a jet boat down the laketo take us up the river to fish. He set off anhour before us in the morning and got backan hour later than us that evening. Jet boatsare needed to travel up the shallow fastrivers like the Tazimina and Secret Rivers toget anglers to the best fishing spots. Jet boatmotors have no propeller and the boats have

a shallow draft and flat bottom so they canmotor up very shallow rivers. On a number of days we fished the SecretRiver (the reason 3 of us had returned), wewere jet boated up the river to a tributarythat was fed by a lake, the water was crystalclear. The main river was coloured by glacialrunoff being a sort of milky blue colour withless than 6” visibility. The river was highfollowing a storm the week before we arrived.According to our guide Steve it was as high ashe had ever seen it. On our first visit Dave,Roger and I were the first three anglersshuttled up to the clear water tributary. Weasked to be dropped off at a part of the riverDave and I had fished before and the Jet boatheaded back to pick up Bob and Ian. The riverwas high and it was difficult to wade becausethe flow was so powerful. The sockeyesalmon were arriving in the river but had notstarted spawning so we used conventionalflies rather than beads. We fished variousmethods between us from dries to nymphsand after an about an hour of fishing the jetboat passed us and carried on upstream.Dave had had a couple of grayling and Rogerand I were still blank. I could see grayling butcould not get them to take my nymphs. I amnot sure they were getting deep enough. Steve came back with the jet boat andsuggested we went further upstream. Wepassed Bob and Ian who were fishing the

bottom of a long run. They both reportedcatching several grayling already on nymphs.The river was a bit wider and shallower andthe wading was much easier. We spread outand started fishing various methods. I fished2 size 14 tungsten pheasant tail nymphsunder an indicator and was very quickly intoseveral grayling. Dave fished a black foam dry(hawthorn) and was catching several fish.Roger fished more conventional dries and alsostarted to catch well. The grayling ranged insize from about a 1½ lb to 2¼ lb with theaverage being just under 2lb. The graylingfishing was amazing, how could a riverpossibly support so many large fish? Thearctic grayling are even more beautiful thanthe grayling at home, with larger morecolourful dorsal fins with both red and bluewith a red fringe and striped pelvic fins andoften a blue sheen to the tail. Their mouthsare larger and more centrally placed allowingthem to be more predatory and aggressivefeeders.Dave shouted over to me that it was “timeto try your mouse pattern”. I had somemouse patterns tied on size 6 hooksespecially to try and catch a grayling on amouse. I put on a mouse cast it across theriver and let it swing causing a wake, a

grayling came up and took the mouse firstcast and I landed about 10 in the next halfhour on the mouse. I wanted to see if using amouse would attract the bigger grayling buteven the smaller grayling took the mousewith great enthusiasm.

Getting ready to go to the Tazamina River

George with his first wild rainbow from the Tasimina River

Alaskan steaming volcano


Everybody was catching lots of fish with Ianand Bob rods appearing to be bent into fishevery time I looked down river. Dave wasexperimenting with different flies and Rogerwas fishing his favourite dries. I switched toa Chernobyl ant with a size 14 bead headnymph suspended below it, as the catches onthe mouse had slowed a little. The grayling

were keen to take the ant or nymph as itdrifted down river but also took the ant if Iheld it back, letting it swing across thecurrent creating a wake at the end of the drift.We fished all day and the grayling keptcoming, the amount of grayling caught wasstaggering. They took flies ranging from a size6 mouse to a size 16 mosquito and everythingin between, with bead-head nymphsappearing to be the biggest fish takers. I waspleased to catch a whitefish amongst thegrayling. It looked a little like a sombrecoloured grayling without the big dorsal andwith a very small under slung mouth. I hadalready caught some in the lake.Some of us visited this stretch of the river onthree separate occasions and our catchesremained amazing. I caught grayling up toabout 2¾ lb, Ian and Bob both reportedcatching fish in excess of 3lb. When wediscussed the fishing as a group that evening,we all agreed that it was the best graylingfishing that any of our group had everexperienced. On our previous visits to theSecret River we had fished a different sectionof the river. The number of fish we caughtwas considerably less but the overall size ofthe grayling was a little bigger. Steve our guidewho fishes the Secret River on a regular basisconfirmed that there are less fish lower downthe river but that they are larger. On each ofour visits to the secret river we had the river to

ourselves, there appearsto be very little anglingpressure. Of an evening afterour dinner some of usfished the lake in frontof the lodge or walkedabout 100 yards downthe shoreline to where astream entered the lake.We caught mainlygrayling at the streammouth on nymphssome good ones, over2lb and we also caughtseveral whitefish alsoup to about 2lb.Catching the whitefish in both the lake andthe river surprised Steve the manager of thelodge, as he had never caught them there. Ithink that we were able to catch thembecause we used small nymphs, close to thelake bed under an indicator. Steve wouldgenerally fish dry fly and if he did use anymph it would be something like a size 10prince nymph. Dave also caught lake troutand grayling both spinning and nymphfishing from the lake shore. During our stay at the lodge Bob and Ianhad 2 fly out days where they were picked upin the morning by a floatplane and returnedto the lodge in the evening after fishing. On

one of the days they fished Funnel Creek andMoraine Creek They reported catching somegood rainbows around 3 to 4lb but that therewere lots of other anglers around and a goodnumber of bears. On their second fly out daythey fished the Rainbow River where they didfloat trip in an inflatable raft, they againreported meeting lots of other fishing partieswho appeared to be hogging the best fishing.They were a bit disappointed as theyexpected a fly out to take them to near virginwater and not see another soul, but theyencountered lots of other anglers.The wildlife was really special; there was ablack bear that walked along the lake shore

Which colour this time?

Whitefish from the Secret River

George and Roger on the Secret River Bear on Russian River

A fine Alaskan grayling


while some of us were fishing the streamabout 100yards from the lodge. One morningwhile we were eating breakfast a bull mooseswam across the bay in front lodge, it swamabout 50 yards past the lodge. Came ashoreshook itself off and walked into the woods.Steve took us to see a bald eagles nest in atree on one of the islands in the lake. We gota great view of a fledgling eagle. On anotheroccasion a young bald eagle somehowmanaged to crash land in the middle of theSecret River just in front of the jet boat as we

headed back afterfishing. It used it wingsto paddle to the bankand just sat therebedraggled as we spedby. One of its parentswas overhead keeping aclose eye on theyoungster. I also saw anotter on the SecretRiver and Ian and Bobsaw beavers on theTazimina River. Our 6 days at theChulitna Lodge went alltoo quickly and we flewback to Anchorage tostart the next part ofour adventure. Wehired cars and drovethe 2.5 hours to Cooper

Landing on the Kenia River. With a view tocatching rainbows and dolly varden (a type ofchar) in the Kenia River and its tributaries,the Russian River and Crystal Creek. Whiledriving alongside the ocean we spottedseveral pods of Beluga Whales, we stoppedand watched them swimming close to theshore. That evening Dave and I fished acouple of hours on Crystal Creek, we usedbeads under an indicator and we caughtsome small rainbows and dolly varden (a firstfor me). Dollies are beautiful fish with a

green body with pink spots and a whiteborder around the fins. I also caught my firstever sockeye salmon a male fish that tookthe bead. It was an ugly brute, a humpbacked, bright red fish with a green head andlots of big nasty looking teeth. We bothhooked and lost several more sockeyes, mostof them foul hooked but some hookedin the mouth. There was so manysockeyes it was hard to avoid themand we lost a number of rigs.We spent a day fishing on the KeniaRiver were we fished larger beads torepresent king salmon eggs as theywere spawning in the main river atthe time. We caught rainbows, dolliesand a few chum salmon (the smallestof the 5 pacific salmon species andanother first for me). We spent partof the day bank fishing from gravelbanks and some boat fishing as wedrifted down the large river, with the driftingbeing far more productive than bank fishing. We spent 2 days fishing the Russian Riverand all enjoyed good sport catching lots ofrainbows and dollies up to 5lb. The methodwe used was beads under a bobber but withonly limited amounts or no shot as the riverwas shallow, fast and rocky. The sockeyeswere spawning and the rainbows and dollieswere waiting for any eggs that drifteddownstream from the redds. I was foulhooking so many Salmon and loosing somuch tackle that I went to a 10lb leader andpromptly broke a rod trying to land one.From then on I hand lined in any salmon inbut was still losing lots of beads and hooks.The salmon made fishing difficult butwithout the salmon the other species wouldnot be there. The rainbows, dollies andgrayling( if present) eat the salmon eggs, theneat the salmon flesh after they have died andtheir bodies break up and then the smolts asthey run down to the sea. Bead fishing is an art in Alaska with thelocal anglers having their own favouritecolours and variations. The beads areavailable in a range of colours and sizes tosuit the different species of salmon eggs.They are available, plain, mottled, with orwithout blood spots. A number of Alaskananglers colour their own beads in the winter

rather than fly tying and use their favouritebeads patterns when the different salmonspecies are spawning. What I will remember most of all aboutfishing the Russian River was the brown(grizzly) bear running down the river banktowards me. With Dave saying we need to

cross the river and get out of its way, we beata hasty retreat and watched the bear frombehind cover on the other bank. It chargedaround the pool for a while caught a salmonand headed off into the woods. It was not inthe slightest bit interested in us. On the samemorning a female moose walked within feetof me as I was stood fishing on the edge ofthe river. It had crossed the river justdownstream of where Dave was fishing andwalked upstream passed me on the bank.There were lots of bears on the Russian Riverand we all experienced seeing bears at closequarters. It is just an amazing sight, watchingbears catching salmon. If anybody would like more informationabout our fishing adventure in Alaska pleasedon’t hesitate to contact me. My mobilenumber is: 07884045637 my landline is 0151548 5741 and my email address is:[email protected] I am hoping to return to Alaska in 2020 torevisit the Chulitna Lodge to fish for arcticgrayling and then to return to the Kenia riverand tributaries to fish for rainbows and dollyvarden. If you would like to experience yourown Alaskan fishing adventure please get intouch. Some of our group are planning to return toAlaska in 2020; would you be interested injoining us?View across the lake from Chulitna Lodge

Bull Moose swimming across Chulitna Bay while we ate breakfast


A Wonderful Day on the Frome with Mr John Bailey

It all started on 25th December 2018 whenmy wife handed me an A4 envelope. Myheart sank, divorce papers, surely not? Ithappens you know during the Christmasperiod, due to the stress of it all apparently,I’ve read about it. Had I spend too much timeon the river bank….Yes. Am I always surfingthe web for the next angling gadget….Yes. DoI clutter the house with fishing gear thatcould fill a small tackle shop….Yes. Did Ileave the bathroom windows unpainted for 3years as I had better things to do (we allknow what that was)….Yes. Do I go Salmonfishing a couple of times a year.…Yes. Do Ifish for Barbel when not game fishing….Yes.Is it too late to change my ways…..probably.Would my wife want it any other way, memoping around the house… Definitely not.I slowly opened the envelope and to my joyit was not what I had though, in fact thecomplete opposite. It was a gift voucher for aday’s grayling fishing on the Ilsington beat onthe river Frome with the most famous ofanglers, John Bailey, arranged for the 18thFebruary 2019. How emotions can change soquickly, in this case for the better.I thanked my most wonderful and thoughtfulwife for such an amazing gift and thenimpatiently waited for the 18th to arrive. Arrive it did (eventually) and at 4:15 amI awoke to the sound of the alarm. The dogs

were surprised to see me, and even moresurprised to get a walk at 4:40 am as they areusually walked at 5:15 am. If looks could kill -how dare I deprive them of 35 minutes sleep!

To Dorset

I set the sat nav and at 5:00 am headed forDorset from my home in Ashridge,Berkhamsted. After an uneventful drive Iarrived at the designated meeting place at7:30 am, the ECO lodge on the banks of theFrome. For those that know me they will tellyou I am always early, one hour early thistime. I assumed I would have to wait for anyother lucky fisherman and our host to arrivebut the door to the lodge was ajar and ableary eyed Mr Bailey appeared. You’re early,he said. Really sorry just a little excited so didnot want to be late, I replied. He beckonedme in and we started to chat and chat wedid. In fact it was like meeting an old pal youhaven’t spoken to or seen for ages. He waspersonable, knowledgeable, humble andgood-humoured {even at this hour of theday). We swapped fishing tales, whilstlaughing and reminiscing and after about 30minutes a second fisherman arrived. I couldhave talked to John all day but I was here tofish. The voucher did state up to fourfishermen could be attending the day’sexperience. Shortly afterwards the rain also

arrived, or should I saymonsoon, I did not see thatcoming, although wasprepared for it (rememberthat I did say I had amassed asmall tackle shop’s worth ofgear and today it filled theboot of my Range Rover).We must have waited atleast 40 minutes for thedeluge to subside, time thatwas eating into my fishing. Iwas growing impatient butfinally we all decided (with alittle coercion from me) toleave the warmth and drylodge and venture into the

now drizzling environment. John’s brief forthe day was to show us where to fish nothow to fish. He has probably caught more 3lb plus grayling than any other UK fishermanand he knew the Frome intimately. There isnothing worse than searching a river for fishwith such limited time so to have the man ‘inthe know’ as our guide was invaluable. John had a plan, firstly we would walk (andfish where possible) the small carrier streamand then head to the main river. So that itwhat we did. We clambered over a couple ofgates and then walked parallel with thecarrier, which was no more than 20 ft wide,narrower in places. If I am honest, this was right up my street,as they say. I just love fishing small, intimaterivers. The three of us chatted as we walkedand one of us occasionally and purposefullyplunged down the bank into the river to casta line when a deep, fishy looking holeappeared. I came across one such place andscrambled down the 6 ft bank into 15 inchesof water. Upstream of me was the fishholding spot, I was sure of it. Deep, slow tobegin with but then the river narrowed andbecame shallower, which is where Ipositioned myself.

Set upMy set up was a 10ft hardy Zenith #4 weightrod, Rio In-touch LT #4 line (my favourite flyline as it makes me look more proficient acaster than I really am), a 9ft 4 lb taperedleader which in turn was attached to a size12 hi-viz Klinkhammer. Under this (on thebend of the hook) was tied a 4ft length of 5lbFulling mill fluorocarbon, with a size 14 goldhead red tag nymph at the business end.I love klink and dink (duo) style fishing.There is something about staring at the dryfly as it meanders its way downstream in thecurrent towards you, longing for it todisappear, knowing that the nymph isdragging bottom where the grayling shelter.Using this technique on other rivers,sometimes a pair of lips have appeared frombelow and an out of season trout, feeling

somewhat partial to a floating insect, hassnaffled the dry fly. Oh well, I’ll take therough with the smooth every now and then.I cast upstream several times but nothing.John then spotted another car arrive about500 yards away at the lodge. He set off toinvestigate, just in case another lucky anglerhad received such a gift as me. I continued tocast, a little further upstream, a little to theleft, a little to the right searching for signs oflife. I crept forward, like a heron stalkingits prey, to cover more water and as the dryfly bobbed and twisted on the surface of thewater it vanished. I lifted the rod and felt aheavy resistance, which began to move. I hadnot hooked a log or the bottom. My heart waspounding; this was no little ‘un. The rod topflexed as my opponent tried to findsanctuary. It must have been 4 minutes untilI saw a silver/grey flash as a fish battled tofree itself. It looked big. I started to talk tomyself (we all do it, don’t we?), please stayon, Paul if you lose this you’re an idiot, youdid not come all this way not to catch, andother such mumblings, some of which cannotbe published, if you know what I mean.The fish began to tire but somehow itmanaged to find its way parallel with me inthe fast, shallow water and then… disaster! It


swam downstream passed me, but remainedattached fortunately. I steered it in thecurrent towards my bank but the water wasfast. I reeled in excess line and made a lungeat the fish hanging in the rapids. This was myone and only chance. Mercifully and veryluckily it went in the scoop net but only just.I had done it, a large, beautiful grayling wasmy prize. The fishing gods were on my sidewith this one. If I were to estimate theweight of the fish then 2.5lb would be aboutright but who really cares. It was a finespecimen, 21 inches in length, unmarked,possibly uncaught, it did not need an number.I took a couple of photos, with John stillabsent and returned it from whence it came.I walked back to where I was initiallystanding when I hooked the fish and recastto the exact same spot. The dry flydisappeared again, thump, thump, gone.“Bugger!” I shouted, at which point I couldhear voices; fortunately these were not in myhead, it was John and two fisherman. Icrawled up the bank with a huge smile andsmug look on my face. “No way!”, John yells.Yes way. I showed him the photo’s and wehigh fived, I told you he was personable. Ithink John was more excited that me. In facthis reaction took me by surprise; he wasgenuinely chuffed and did not hold back inshowing it.

Main riverWe moved on to the main river, deeper,wider, slower and carrying more colour. Thewind was a pain and casting was difficult. Imanaged 2 small grayling and one about 1lbbefore lunch, with the other two fishermencatching one grayling each and losing oneeach also. I believe they both had good fish,well over 2 lb.After lunch we headed upstream, one of theanglers departed for the day so the three ofus made our way to the upper stretches of thebeat. We both fished all afternoon without a sniffof a fish. As the light began to fade Johnpointed me to one last pool that was reportedto hold big grayling. I cast several times butto no avail. The dry fly disappeared onseveral occasions with John gasping at each

with the expectation of a monster fish. I casta little further out in the main current andthe fly once again vanished. I leisurely liftedthe rod but this time it was met with a solidresistance. John jumped to his feet – “This isit!” he bellowed. The fish fought doggedly forabout 8 minutes, we did not see it as it boredeep in to the weeds. John was bouncingaround in an over-exited manner, ready tophone the worlds angling media with thenews of a record grayling. No pressure on methen. I was gaining ground slowly and thensaw a sliver flash. Could this be it, if only, fishof a life time. The fish came closer, closerstill, “It’s a flippin’ trout!”, I said. We bothlooked at each other, I am not sure who wasmore disappointed, John I think. After landingthe ‘imposter’ we estimated it to be aroundthe 5lb mark, so not a bad fish at all, it wasjust not a record grayling.We headed back to the lodge, said ourgoodbyes and before I knew it I was back onthe road, this time homeward bound.

My biggest grayling

Summing up the day, I caught five fish, oneof which was my biggest grayling, met JohnBailey, fished the Frome (not done any ofthose before) and fished with two otheranglers who were as keen as me. Theweather was not kind; windy, rainy but nottoo cold, it was February after all.A day to remember - hell yes! I must thank Fishing Breaks for thisexperience but mostly John Bailey. What alovely man. I would not have cared (toomuch) if I had not caught, John’s companymade the day what it was, thank you John, ohyes and thank you, my special wife, Susan,patience of a saint, a heart of gold and sovery generous.Wonder what she will buy me next year……here’s hoping…..and maybe anotherstory will ensue. Until then, tight lines to all my fellowfishermen.

Paul Andermahr

(A very lucky fisherman and husband - orshould that be the other way round, a verylucky husband and fisherman?)

We were blessed with fine conditions on ourArea 10 fishing day at the back end ofNovember last year. The river was low andclear, with the weather mild enough for ahatch of midge and an occasional LDO in theearly afternoon. Ten stalwarts from allcorners of Area 10, from Keswick to Southport,gravitated to The Inn at Whitewell, in thebeautiful Trough of Bowland for earlymorning bacon butties and hot coffee. Therewe met up with Dave Jones, fellow GSmember and Whitewell Fishing Associationcommittee member to sort out our beats forthe day.Thanks to thegenerosity of thecommittee and themembers of theWhitewell FishingAssociation, we hadaccess to all of theirwaters. There is adearth of day ticketwater available onthe Hodder. Theopportunity to fishthis highly regardedand exclusivestretch of river wastoo good to miss!

The WFA have been in existence from theearly 1900’s and have a splendid rod room atthe Inn. This is where the committee has itsmeetings. The walls display old photos of bigcatches of trout and salmon from the earlyyears of the last century. There are framedclassic salmon flies and greenheart and canerods adding to the piscatorial atmosphere.The good news is that everyone caughtgrayling on the day! The fish came mainly tobead head nymphs but some of us werefortunate to find some rising fish. The totalcatch return was 47 grayling – biggest around

Area 10 Fishing Day, November 2018

Whitewell Fishing Association’s Water on the River Hodder

1lb 6oz and a few out of season brownies. It was a privilege to fish this gorgeous river.It emphasised to me, one of the manyadvantages of being a Grayling Societymember, is to have opportunities like this -getting to fish in special places, in goodcompany.Our heartfelt thanks go to Dave Jones andGordon Brathwaite who did a marvellous jobguiding and supporting us during the day.Particular thanks also to the Committee andmembers of WFA for their generous sharingof their fishing.

Alan SwannArea 10 Secretary


Aphids and Grayling Dave Southall

Grayling love aphids. They can becometotally preoccupied with them to the exclusionof all else. This is a typical scenario at autumnleaf-fall on any grayling river with plenty ofoverhanging trees, particularly sycamores. There are around 600 species of aphid in

the UK and most are quite species specificwith regard to the plant species on whichthey feed. 8 speciesare associated withsycamore treesand 6 with aldertrees, the two mostcommon treespecies along ourriverbanks. Aphidsare tiny, typicallybetween 2mm and5mm long. Coloursrange throughblack, green,brown, yellow,orange and red,with black andgreen the mostcommon. Most species survive the winter ascold-resistant eggs that hatch in the spring toform wingless females that reproduceasexually by parthenogenesis (virgin-birth,requiring no mating or egg fertilization) toproduce live young in vast numbers, allclones of their parents. In late summer andautumn winged adults are produced withboth males and females and sexualreproduction produces the egg stage (thisfacilitates genetic mixing). Aphids feed bypiercing the host plant’s food-carrying tubes(phloem) in the stems or leaves with theirhollow mouthparts. The pressure within thephloem is such that sugary sap is forced intothe aphid’s stomach and not all of this isabsorbed, some is released as ‘honey dew’from the aphid’s anus. Ants often feed on thissugary waste and cars parked under treeswith heavy aphid populations get covered withsticky droplets.

In mid November 2018 I had two fabulousdays grayling fishing for aphid-feeders on anindustrial Yorkshire river that has a goodnumber of sycamore trees overhanging itsbanks. On both days the weather was verymild and moderately sunny, with a riversurface plastered with fallen leaves anddotted with millions of aphids. The grayling

were rising all dayalong the smoothglides and in softcurrents wherethe leaves andaphids were beingconcentrated. Astomach samplegently syringedfrom one ofStuart Crofts’captures showedthe fish to begorging on aphidsin a range ofcolours, wingedand wingless, but

all about 3mm long. On both occasions mysetup was the same; 10’ 6” 2 weight rod, 0weight line, 12’ copolymer leader made up ofa 7’ taper from 0.43mm to 0.20mm plus 5’ of0.09mm tippet to which I attached my usualaphid pattern, a size 24 CdC IOBO (It OughtaBe Outlawed) Humpy (a fantastic patterndevised by Jack Tucker of Pennsylvania in the1990s). On most occasions a size 24 (tied on ashort shank Tiemco 2488 hook) is all that Ineed to tempt grayling feeding on aphids andmidges but on the days in question the fishwere in a fussy mood and although a few fishwere caught on this size of fly a change to asize 30 Minimalistic Micro Midge (MMM)increased both the number of takes and thenumber of hook-ups. The MMM is just a tuftof CdC tied pointing over the hook eye with amm or two of CdC butt extending back overthe bend. My fishing companions and I lostcount of the number of grayling that we

Stomach contents gently syringed from a grayling (photo by Stuart Crofts)

Peter with a pound plus grayling

Photos: Dave Jones and Paul Shorrock

Hodder grayling


� Fish at as close a range as possible and hold as much line off the water as possible. A long rod helps here too.

The above things will reduce the effectsrogue currents pulling and pushing on the lineand the last one will also ensure that the firstthing the fish sees is the fly and not the line.

Tiny hooks

The next big problem is getting hold of tinyhooks on which to tie such miniscule flies.Very few models are readily available in theUK and some of these are, in my opinion, toothin in the wire and with eyes that are toosmall to easily thread even 0.09mm tippet.Daiichi 1110 and Orvis Big Eye Dry Fly hooksare identical with micro-barbs that need to

be flattenedand they areavailabledown to size26 (sameshank lengthas a size 24Tiemco 2488):the big eye isa great help

but the shank is a bit too long and the gape abit too narrow for my liking. My favouritehooks are both short shank and wide gape.They are only available from the USA in sizes24 and smaller and prices are high. Tiemco2488s are barbed with adequate sized eyes andthey would appear to be now only availabledown to size 26 according to the Umpqua andTMC websites. Gamakatsu C12-BMs arebarbless with nice big eyes and are availabledown to size 30.My pattern for aphids andmidges is very simple. In size 24I usually tie my variant of JackTucker’s deadly pattern, the CdCIOBO (It Oughta Be Outlawed)Humpy. Below size 24 I tie myown Minimalistic Micro-Midge,which is just the tip of a CdCfeather tied facing over the hookeye. The example in the photohas no wing at the back but if Iwant extra visibility andbuoyancy I leave a bit of featherbutt over the back of the hook.

I generally tie these flies with tan 8/0 threadand natural grey Mallard CdC. To aid visibility,if I’m fishing with a light background I treatthe CdC with a thin coating of Roman MoserMiracle Float gel, whilst if the background isdark I apply white Fumed Silica Powder. Asyou’ll see from the stomach contents photoaphids come in a range of colours and fliestied with orange, yellow or even pink CdCwork equally well if you need to improve thevisibility. When accurately casting atrelatively short range I find that I have noproblem seeing these miniscule flies (fishingat distances over 30’ becomescounterproductive due to the reduced castingaccuracy and the reduced hooking rate).So next time you find grayling eagerly risingto aphids get out the micro-dry flies. Patternis less important than size, so keep the tyingsimple.

Tying an IOBO Humpy (my variant of a flydevised by Jack Tucker of Pennsylvania)Hook: Tiemco 2488 size 24 to 26. Thread: Tan 8/0 well waxed.Body & Wings: 2 natural Mallard CdCfeather tips.There is a good video done by Three RiversTenkara’s of my method of tying this on YouTube on their web site:https://threeriverstenkara.com

Tying a MMMHook: Tiemco 2488 size 26 to 30.Thread: Tan 8/0 well waxed.Wing/legs: tip of 1 small CdC feather tiedfacing over the hook eye and posted up toabout 45 degrees with the butts clipped offto leave a short rear-facing wing.

Size 30 Tiemco 2488 (no longer madein this size!) and Gamakatsu C12-BMhooks against a mm scale

landed over those two amazing days. Wecaught no monsters, just a mix from littleyearlings to decent fish around the 13” mark.It was encouraging to see the range of sizesand the large numbers since on my localDriffield Beck the grayling have been virtuallyexterminated by cormorants and even someof the North Yorks Moors streams havedramatically reduced numbers.As I’ve said before in articles, presentationis the biggest problem when fishing tiny flies.Grayling will rarely move more than acentimeter or two off line to take a tiny flyand this is particularly true when tiny fooditems are super-abundant (energy-efficiencyis the name of their game). So casting mustbe hyper-accurate. Furthermore whilst troutwill sometimes tolerate a bit of drag graylingwill generally reject a dry fly with even theslightest of micro-drag. To achieve a perfectlydrag-free drift is very difficult and repeatedattempts may be necessary to achievesuccess. The following will improve theangler’s chance of achieving the perfect drift:

� Use long flexible (light) tippet (I use at least5’ of 0.09mm copolymer).

� Tie your fly into a loop knot (Rapala Knot,Fordyce Loop or Perfection Loop) to give it free movement from the relatively stiff tippet.

� Use a flexible tapered leader (I use 7’ of copolymer tapering from 0.43mm to 0.20mm

diameter, but furled leaders are even more flexible).

� Use as light/thin/flexible a fly line as possible (I usually use a Micro Nymph, 0 weight Esoteric Nymph Line or a 1 weight Jeremy Lucas micro thin delicatepresentation line with a long front taper). Consider using a silk line as they are far more flexible than plastic coated lines, however with long rods they have a habit of wrapping around the rod tip, as do long furled leaders and this can be a nuisance when wading.

� Use a suitable slack line cast so that there is some slack in the line, particularlyat the tippet end. You don’t want a perfectly straight line between rod tip andfly as this will allow the instant onset of drag. The Italian Style Slowed Down Angular Cast is perfect for putting slack into the leader and tippet whilst keeping the main line off any rogue currents.

� If possible cast across and slightlydownstream with a dump/slack-line cast and an upstream reach, then track the rod tip downstream at the same pace as the current. Using a long rod will help with this. I use the Sunray ZERO at its 10’ 6” configuration, the Sunray Volition 10’ 2 weight, the Esoteric 1 in 4 Nymph 10’ 6”to 12’ rod at its 10’ 6” configuration or a 12’ to 14’ 6” Tenkara rod for dry fly fishing. Size 24 IOBO Humpy and size 30 Minimalistic Micro Midge against a mm scale

Putting Research Findings into EverydayAngling Practice

Conservation Physiology - Recent Catchand Release Research

AddendumLes Jervis – GRT Trustee


time or increased unhooking time, or greatermetabolic demand for oxygen. The latterparticularly might normally affect recoverytime adversely. However, the River Fromewhere the study was carried out has goodRanunculus growth and dissolved oxygen (DO)is supersaturated so effects were due totemperature not low DO (Pinder, personalcommunication). In most rivers, it is not safeto assume that this will be the case and lowDO will exacerbate the effects of hightemperature. In the study, air exposure variedbetween 0 seconds (fish unhooked in water)and 180 seconds (3 minutes), significantlygreater than in the work of Roth et al (seebelow) where exposure times of less than 60seconds were used.Coping with the stresses of capture,unhooking and air exposure wasproportionately more difficult after releaseabove 15 degrees. The authors were surprisedthat temperature effects were marked at 15degrees, and the river water temperature wasabove this for most of the summer. Thestretch of the Frome where the study wascarried out has “abundant” pike. Recoveringfish are known to be more susceptible topredation so, particularly during the summerand especially with deeply-hooked fish,unseen post-release mortality may be high.These findings support the work of manyothers on the effects of temperature on fishrecovery. It is noticeable that, at higher

temperatures, both fight time and airexposure are longer than in winter, resultingin much longer recovery times. Lennox et alconcluded that “120 s air exposure significantlyincreased the likelihood of reflex impairment. Inaddition, 120 s air exposure resulted in prolongedreflex impairment given that recovery wasincomplete after 30 min”. The temperaturesused by Lennox et al were greater than usedby Pinder et al and the fight times were longerleading, most probably, to a greater level ofexhaustion.

In a review of 83 studies on the effects oftemperature on fish survival, Gale et al (2013)concluded that 70% of these studies reportednegative effects of temperature and “theweight of evidence suggests thermal and capturestressors are often additive in nature, such thatwhen experienced together they may be moredetrimental to fish than either one experiencedalone”. And “collectively, these results suggest thattemperatures even within preferred or optimalranges may increase mortality to an unacceptablelevel for many species, representing a potentiallyunexpected challenge for managing these [C&R]fisheries.........Thus, there is a strong need forresearchers to assess the optimal temperaturerange for a given species under non-idealizedconditions.” Although not relating to grayling, two veryrecent papers by Roth et al (2018a and 2018b)working on Yellowstone cutthroat trout foundthat air exposure for up to 60 seconds had nonegative effect on either spawning success orsurvival. Their work was primarily concernedwith air exposure but covered late Spring(May/June), (water temperatures averaging11.8°C and varying from 5.7°C to 16.8°C)during spawning migrations and Summer(August) (Stream temperatures during actualangling sessions (0800–1800 hours) averaging11.6°C and varying from 10.4°C to 13.2°C:Average diurnal air temperature was 18.4°Cand varied from 4.7°C to 30.6°C during thestudy period), thereby dealing with a range of

temperatures. Theyconcluded that “consideringthat much of the literature, aswell as this study, reports little tono influence of air exposure onsalmonid mortality orreproductive success, it seemshighly unlikely that air exposure

of less than 60 s during C&R angling would havenegative population-level effects.”The Summer (August) study was carried outon three species of trout and concluded that“no difference in survival was observed among airexposure treatments for all three species [cutthroat,bull and rainbow]. Results from the present studyalong with those from prior field studies of airexposure times during angling (Roth 2018a)suggest that mortality from exposing fish to air for≤60 s is not likely a population-level concern incatch-and-release fisheries for these species.”

Since the first of these summaries on catchand release (published in Grayling, Winter2017), there has been another significantpaper specifically relating to catch andrelease of European grayling. It is from thelaboratory of Adrian Pinder at BournemouthUniversity and looks at the effects oftemperature on fish recovery after capture.This is particularly relevant given theconcerns about average temperature increaseswith climate change (global warming), butalso because weather after 16th June can, likelast year, be very warm. Already in 2019, wehave seen record February high temperaturesin the UK. These followed very coldtemperatures in February 2018, making anannual February difference approaching 30degrees Centigrade. Whether these extremesare due to climate change or are just featuresof normal climate cycles hardly matters. Theyare not good for our rivers or cold water fishlike grayling and it is welcome to see studieson the effects of temperature differences onfish recovery after C&R. The Pinder study did not use fly fishing as acapture technique – unlike the study byLennox et al in 2016. Instead, bait fishingtechniques were used – float fishing andledgering – principally because grayling areoften targeted in coarse fishing. Whereasledgering is not a technique likely to be usedby the vast majority of grayling anglers, it isused widely by coarse anglers who may eitherintentionally or unintentionally hook bottom-feeding grayling. Although the studyprimarily looked at the effects of temperatureon fish recovery, several other factors were

involved incidentally in post-capture recoveryand post-release mortality. These were: deep-hooking, landing net contribution, airexposure and predation, notably by pike. Withthose factors brought in, this article hasexpanded to cover several other studies.

Temperature & Recovery

There has been no other study of graylingC&R covering two temperature ranges, thusthe results give an indication of likely effectsof future environmental temperatureincreases. For cold-water fish like grayling,especially living close to their southerngeographical range, the future effects ofclimate warming are potentially very serious.Whereas Lennox et al looked at the recoveryof grayling caught at surface watertemperatures of 17 – 18 degrees C in August,Pinder et al compared recovery between twotemperature ranges and two differentseasons, all fish being caught between Juneand December. Water temperatures wererecorded using a Tiny Tag logger andthermometer immediately post-capture. Summer fish were caught between 15 and20.8 degrees C (June – September) and Winterfish caught below 10 degrees C (October –January). As might be expected recovery time,as determined by the righting reflex, waslonger for fish caught above 15 degrees thanthe winter caught fish - about 2.5 times aslong (Table 1). There was no significantdifference in hooking damage to the mouthor air exposure time between the twotemperature groups. Longer recovery timeabove 15 degrees could be a reflection of fight


The differences between the Gale reviewand the Roth studies highlights the need forgreat caution to avoid invalid conclusions. AsCook et al (2015) said in their paper “Fish out ofwater: How Much Air is Too Much?” “Externalvariables such as environmental conditions,species, or life history stage can all factor into airexposure tolerance; therefore, there is no universalthreshold applicable to all fish-capture events.”For a fish such as grayling that isparticularly sensitive to air exposure,assuming that the Roth et al findings willapply is a dangerous assumption. This againhighlights the difficulties inherent inextrapolating from one species to another,even between salmonids. It also highlightsthe validity of keeping air exposure to anabsolute minimum.

Bryan Huskey of Keepemwet.orgcommented recently (2019) that “by definition,fish live in water and with few exceptions (e.g.,lungfish, arapaima) can only extract oxygen fromwater. As such, it should be no surprise that airexposure is not a “good” thing for fish. Of course,a little air exposure is not going to kill a fish. Butwhat defines “a little”? The answer varies basedon many factors.” “Sensitivity to oxygen can alsovary for a variety of reasons for a given species.For example, water temperature influences howmuch air exposure a fish can withstand. For anygiven species, fish tend to be able to handle longerperiods of air exposure at cooler temperatures thanat warmer temperatures.”

“Sensitivity to air exposure can also varydepending on life stage. For example, Pacificsalmon are quite sensitive to air exposure duringearly phases of their upriver migration yet whenthe approach spawning grounds (literally about tospawn), they become quite resilient to airexposure.

The idea that the context matters makes it verydifficult to identify a single duration of airexposure to guide anglers in how to handle fish.The default should be “as little as possible”. Weare unaware of a biological explanation nor asingle scientific study showing that air exposure isgood for fish. So, what is a “little”? If we arelooking for a single number to apply across theboard, the 10 second limit proposed in a synthesisof available data remains the most useful value.”

The answer, regardless of contradictoryresearch findings has got to be minimize or

eliminate air exposure. If you think thetemperature might be too warm to fish – it is!

Deep Hooking & Hook Shedding

The focus of Pinder et al on bait fishingintroduced additional factors that may affectgrayling survival post-release:� Deep hooking & hook shedding: fish were more likely to be deeply hooked than when fly fishing.

� Barbed or barbless hooks: hooks had microbarbs to retain the bait but these may make unhooking and hook shedding by deeply-hooked fish more difficult.

Although hook shedding was not studied byPinder et al, it is of interest to look at, withcaution, other studies, even where these arein other species. In respect of hookingdamage, about 14% of fish were hooked in theoesophagus, requiring the line to be cut andthe micro-barbed hook left in the fish. Thisfigure is in line with other work.In a study of the long-term effects on fish ofdeep hooking, Weltersbach et al (2016) caughteels using either float angling or ledgeringand allowing 1 – 5 minutes for eels to swallowbait containing either large or small barbed orbarbless hooks. They then cut themonofilament close to the mouths of the eelsand followed to fate of the hooks by X-radiography and monitored eel mortality over23 weeks. Apart from two fish thatregurgitated the hooks almost immediately(within 2 hours), 5 eels shed hooks by day 24and two later (between days 24 and 115). Nohooks were detected in the lower intestine ornear the anus suggestion hooks were shed byregurgitation. Only one hook showed any signof corrosion. The results showed clearly thathook size is important but not the presenceor absence of barbs. They also show thatwhere hooks are not shed, some disease ispresent. However, the authors advise cautionwhen considering the mortality of deeply-hooked fish as the study contained no controlgroup to determine the natural mortality ofeels in this size/age group. The study isinteresting in that it recorded not justsurvival and mortality but also morbidity,with 12 of the original 32 eels sufferingdisease related to deep hooking.

Studies on deep-hooking of salmonids

DuBois and Pleski (2007) looked at deephooking survival in brook trout caught by baitfishing in a hatchery. Some of the data isgiven in table 4. They found less bleedingwhen barbless hooks were used but mortalitywas very similar. The study lasted only 6weeks as against the 23 weeks byWeltersbach et al (2016). Even so, the finalmortality of two thirds of the brook troutafter 6 weeks is well above the 40% for eelsafter 23 weeks. Differences in methodologymight well have affected the outcome, asmight anatomical or other differencesbetween eels and trout. Nonetheless, the

results are hardly encouraging for the releaseof deeply-hooked fish in natural situationswhere predation is another likely cause ofmortality in released fish. There have been nostudies on post-release mortality of deeply-hooked grayling. Until there are, on the basisof what evidence there is, it would seemprudent to administer last rights than toleave them to a very uncertain, possiblyprolonged, fate.

Landing Net Contribution to UnhookingIn the Pinder study there were additionalfactors due to the landing nets used thataffected unhooking times:

� Hooks sometimes became tangled in landing net mesh, pulling the whole hook and line through the lip, extending unhooking, and air exposure, times.

� Secondly, the microbarbon the hooks used occasionally became tangled in the landing net, causing increased difficulty in unhooking and causing more damage to hooked fish.

� Longer unhooking times increase air exposure and delay fish recovery.

To minimizeunhooking time andminimize risk of damage,Pinder recommendslanding nets with a largerrubberized mesh toreduce these risks.

RecommendationsPinder highlights thedifficulties of climatechange: “These resultshighlight the potential forfuture climate changeprojections (e.g. elevatedsummer temperatures that


are concomitant with low flows) to exacerbateC&R mediated risks to cold-water sport fishes”He makes the following recommendations:“The practice of discouraging anglers to target T.thymallus during periods of high watertemperature, combined with minimisation orelimination of air exposure, have the potential toincrease the resilience of populations to C&Rangling exploitation and support the conservationof this popular sport species”.The use of live invertebrate baits makes avaluable contribution to the Lennox study andintroduces some different conclusions. Theseare very relevant to those who use trottingtechniques but also to fly fishing. The surprisein the study that temperatures above only 15degrees affect adversely grayling recovery timeand probably affect other species that requirelow temperature, well oxygenated water suchas all salmonids. Coarse fish species are oftenassumed to have much greater temperatureand air exposure tolerance but, until this isdefinitely shown to be the case, they should beafforded the same consideration and respectas more sensitive species.The results and recommendations of AdrianPinder’s paper need to be publicised to coarsefishermen by the EA, NRW and in coarsefishing magazines as well as among graylinganglers. The EA recently (2018) published“Catch and Release for Salmon: An Angler’sGuide”. Similar guidance should be issued forall species of fish subject to recreationalangling. Keepemwet.org publishes freeregular newsletters with research and C&Rrecommendation updates. They should beessential reading for all.

AcknowledgementsThanks are due to the following for copiesof research papers and for reading andcommenting on the draft: Adrian Pinder, RichCove, and Alan Swann of the Grayling Societyand Grayling Research Trust, Drs. MarikaKirsten Gale (University of British Columbia)and Curtis Roth (University of Idaho).

Adrian Pinder’s paper was published in theinternational research journal FisheriesResearch. Copies of the full paper can berequested by emailing Adrian Pinder [email protected]

References

KV. Cook, RJ. Lennox, SG. Hinch & SJ. Cooke (2015),Fisheries, 40:9, 452-461,DOI:10.1080/03632415.2015.1074570Fish out of water: how much air is too much?

RB DuBois and JM Pleski (2007),North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 27, 1203 – 1207,Hook shedding and mortality of deeply hooked brooktrout caught with bait on barbed and barbless hooks.

Environment Agency (2018), Catch and Release for Salmon: An Angler’s Guide.

MK Gale, SG Hinch & MR Donaldson (2013),Fish and Fisheries, 14, 1–33,The role of temperature in the capture and releaseof fish.

B Huskey, (2019),Keepemwet.org. February 1, 2019Some Fresh Air on Air Exposure

RJ Lennox, I Mayer, TB Havn, MR Johansen, KWhoriskey, SJ Cooke, EB Thorstad & I Uglem (2016),Boreal Environment Research 21: 461–470.Effects of recreational angling and air exposure on thephysiological status and reflex impairment ofEuropean grayling (Thymallus thymallus)

Pinder, A. C., Harrison, A. J., & Britton, J. R. (2019). Fisheries Research, 211, 169-175.Temperature effects on the physiological status andreflex impairment in European grayling Thymallusthymallus from catch-and release angling. CJ Roth, DJ Schill, MC Quist, B High, MR Campbell, NVVu, (2018a),North American Journal of Fisheries Management,DOI:10.1002/nafm.10262Effects of air exposure during simulated catch-and-release angling on survival and fitness of yellowstonecutthroat trout.

CJ Roth, DJ Schill, MC Quist, B High, (2018b),North American Journal of Fisheries Management,DOI:10.1002/nafm.10184Effects of air exposure in summer on the survival ofcaught-and-released salmonids

MS Weltersbach, K Ferter, F Sambraus, HV Strehlow,(2016),Biological Conservation 199 (2016) 16–24Hook shedding and post-release fate of deep-hookedEuropean eel.

New grayling research papersStanislaw Cios

I was delighted to read the article by LesJervis in the previous issue of Grayling onrecent papers on conservation and C&R. Iwould like to encourage our Editor and otherMembers of the Society to keep everybodyupdated on new important scientificpublications on grayling. On my side, I would like to draweverybody’s attention to a recent paper ongrayling systematics by a team of Czech andRussian ichthyologists, headed by Yury V.Dyldin. They have listed currently known 18grayling species in the Holarctic region,including the second known one in Europe -Thymallus aeliani, or the Adriatic grayling.The paper is available on internet (freeaccess) – through Google Scholar, so I do notneed to go into details. Instead I would like tooffer some comments on recent research ongrayling systematics.First of all, I am very pleased to inform thatthe Grayling Society has added its brick to thepalace of knowledge (it’s no longer a simplebuilding) on grayling. Older members of theSociety still have and remember the bookGrayling – The fourth game fish (2000), editedby Ron Broughton. This book, in particularthe chapters by Antonio Sabbadini (On Italianand Balkan grayling) and Ross Gardiner (Theorigins and present distribution of grayling), isfrequently quoted in scientific papers on thesystematics and evolution of grayling.Congratulations Antonio and Ross!Secondly, I would like to note that in thescientific literature there is one fossilgrayling, which hasn’t been mentioned in anymodern paper on the evolution of this fish (infact no grayling researcher seems to havenoticed it). It is Thymallus latisulcatus, found

near Istanbul in Turkey (see: Rückert-Ülkümen & Kaya 1993, Rückert-Ülkümen etal. 2006). At present it is too early to say onwhich branch of the phylogenetic tree it sits,if the fossil remains really belong to agrayling.And here I come to the third point. In 1901 aGermain researcher - Laube - published aninteresting paper on fossil fish, with beautifulphotos of their remains. Among these fishwere a few species belonging to a newlydescribed by him genus Protothymallus. Hebelieved that these fish were some ancientforms of our grayling (thus the name proto –thymallus). However, he was wrong. Laterresearch proved that these fish belong to thecyprinids. So we do have grayling friends alsoamong the cyprinid fans.

LiteratureDyldin Yu. V., Hanel L., Romanov V.I., Plesník J. 2017.A review of the genus Thymallus (Pisces:Salmoniformes, Salmonidae, Thymallinae) withtaxonomic notes. Bull. Lampetra, ZO ČSOP Vlašim,8:103-126.

Laube G.C. 1901. Synopsis der Wirbelthierfauna derBöhm. Braunkohlenformation und Beschreibungneuer, oder bisher unvollständig bekannter Arten.Abhandlungen des deutschennaturwissenschaftlich-medicinischen Vereines fürBöhmen "Lotos", 2 (4):107–186.

Rückert-Ülkümen N., Kaya O. 1993. Neue Beiträgezur Tertiär-Stratigraphie und Otolithenfauna derUmgebung von Istanbul (Küçükçekmece undBüyükçekmece See), Türkei. Mitteilungen derBayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie undhistorische Geologie, 33:51–89.

Rückert-Ülkümen, N., Kowalke T., Matzke-Karasz R.,Witt W., Yigitbas E. 2006. Biostratigraphy of theParatethyan Neogene at Yalova (Izmit-Province, NW-Turkey). Newsletters on Stratigraphy 42, 43–68.

There is always a need for material for the Society’spublications. The editor will welcome anything thatrelates to your experiences of grayling and theirhabitats. Perhaps there have been improvementworks on a river in your area, or problems with the

creation of better habitat; perhaps some notable ornot so notable catches – just a good day’s fishing thatyou would like to share. Contact the Editor, Bob Male,by any means you wish. All contributions aregratefully received.

ARTICLES WANTED! KEEP YOUR JOURNAL ALIVE


studies that have failed to demonstrate anegative effect of air exposure. For example, arecent press release from a study byresearchers at the University of Idaho usedthe headline “brief air exposure not a threatto fish survival”. The air exposure durationsused in that study were 30 and 60 secondsand involved adult cutthroat trout as theyapproached spawning grounds. The researchersrevealed that there was no difference insurvival or reproductive success for controlfish (no air exposure) and those exposed toair. However, this study, just as many thathave come before it, has its own limitations(e.g. they held the fish in tanks beforesimulating angling, which we know to bestressful,) and is very context dependent (e.g.survival is a whole different ball game whenthere are predators around). This context wasabsent from the press release and we areconcerned that anglers and the anglingmedia are left with the impression that “fish

are tougher than we give them credit for” whenin reality the message is that the impacts ofC&R are varied and depend highly on species,location, how a study is performed. “Spinning”such findings to get media headlines doesnothing to help improve how anglers handlefish. In fact, it does the opposite — it createsconfusion. We greatly encourage all anglersto be careful and not take press releases suchas this at face value. We await a study that provides evidencethat air exposure is good for fish — that itbenefits them in a biologically meaningfulway. There are many ways in which anglerscan interact with fish and capture the momentforever without extending air exposurebeyond 10 seconds. Let’s #keepemwet!Happy Fishing!

Dr. Steve Cooke, Dr. Andy Danylchuk, and Sascha Clark Danylchuk�

Keepemwet Fishing Science Ambassadors

By definition, fish live in water and with fewexceptions (e.g., lungfish, arapaima) can onlyextract oxygen from water. As such, it shouldbe no surprise that air exposure is not a“good” thing for fish. Of course, a little airexposure is not going to kill a fish. But whatdefines “a little”? The answer varies based onmany factors. For example, some fish speciesare simply more tolerant to air exposure thanothers. Species like common carp andbullhead catfish are able to live in water withvery little oxygen and therefore tend to alsobe fairly tolerant of air exposure — as muchas 10 minutes of air exposure or more. Others(such as bluefin tuna, bonefish, andsalmonids) are extremely sensitive to lowlevels of oxygen whether they are exposed toair or to waters with little oxygen. Sensitivity to oxygen can also vary for avariety of reasons for a given species. Forexample, water temperature influences howmuch air exposure a fish can withstand. Forany given species, fish tend to be able tohandle longer periods of air exposure atcooler temperatures than at warmertemperatures. Take bluegill sunfish forexample — for a given duration of airexposure, the extent of impact to the fish isalways lower for the cooler temperaturesthan it is for warmer temperatures, and theextent of that difference increases withlonger periods of air exposure.

Master factor

Water temperature is SO important for fishthat it is referred to as the “master factor”(See Finsights 14), and it affects all biologicalprocesses and is also the reason why somefisheries close when water temperaturesexceed a given threshold. The closer the fishare to the upper end of their thermal

tolerance range, the more important it is tominimize stress from air exposure. Sensitivityto air exposure can also vary depending onlife stage. For example, Pacific salmon arequite sensitive to air exposure during earlyphases of their upriver migration yet whenthe approach spawning grounds (literallyabout to spawn), they become quite resilientto air exposure. The idea that the context matters makes itvery difficult to identify a single duration ofair exposure to guide anglers in how tohandle fish. The default should be “as little aspossible”. We are unaware of a biologicalexplanation or a single scientific studyshowing that air exposure is good for fish. So,what is a “little”? If we are looking for a singlenumber to apply across the board, the 10-second limit proposed in a synthesis ofavailable data remains the most useful value.The Keepemwet Fishing mantra is aboutminimizing air exposure and keeping fishwet. Even we scientists love to admire fishand capture the moment just like anyoneelse. In fact, that was the entire premise forthe #keepemwet movement — how fish canbe admired in a way that also ensures thatthey are released in a state where there arelikely to survive and thrive.

Air exposure

A couple of recent studies have been criticalof the existing literature that suggests airexposure is bad for fish. Indeed, some of theolder work was done in the laboratory forexperimental purposes and some of thosestudies use absurdly long air exposuredurations. Nonetheless, the patterns thatemerged from those studies stand — and thepatterns are clear — more air exposure isworse than less air exposure. There are some

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AGAIN


The River Irwell, a well known river the inthe North West of England., flows from itssource high on the moors above Bacup inLancashire down through the Irwell valleyand past the industrialised North West cornerof Manchester and through its centre.Throughout its 39-mile length it has seenmany changes, and during the 17th and 18thcenturies it was part of a major trading routeuntil it fed into the River Mersey.The Industrial Revolution, which brought so

much good and prosperity to the North Westalso brought much pollution to its waterwaysparticularly the Irwell.The early 18th century had seen the riverwell stocked with fish and other wildlife aswell as being used for drinking and domesticuses. It was in the mid 1800’s that its fortunechanged as mills were built upstream intowns like Bacup, Rawtenstall, Bury and thenthrough the populated areas such asManchester and Salford. In fact JamesChetham the author of “The Anglers VadeMecum” in 1680 and founder of Manchester’sChetham’s Hospital, described one of theIrwell’s tributaries – the River Irk, as “one ofthe prettiest rivers in all the country”. Howtimes have changed.But they are changing again. In recent yearsthere has been much work done by thecountry’s oldest angling club – the SalfordFriendly Anglers Society, which was institutedin April 1817. This club which is internetbased and free to join, has its meetings in theKings Arms in Salford and under theChairmanship of Mike Duddy has been at theforefront of cleaning the river and bringingfish back. Trout are now being caught in thecentre of Manchester and there is a goodhead of coarse species. With many volunteersalong the river primarily from Salfordupstream to Ramsbottom constantlywatching for pollution and acting to report itand clean it, the river now holds animpressive head of fish. But sadly there arestill pollution incidents, such as one in 2016that caused a large fish kill. The stretch hasjust about cleared itself and the stocking ofseveral species has taken place during thelast 12 months.

There are records dating back to 1820 or so,of grayling being in the Irwell and in one ofits tributaries – the River Roch, presumablyfrom stocking many, many years ago.Recently a young angler claims to havecaught one from the river in the Bury area.The nearby rivers Tame and Goyt have goodnumbers of grayling so there is evidencelocally that they were stocked in this part ofthe world. Salford Friendly Anglers Society is workingvery hard towards bringing the Irwell back toa clean and healthy fishing state have co-operated with the Environment Agency andand the fish farm at Calverton, recently had3,000 fingerling grayling stocked in the middlereaches of the river. These fish are the first of

a 3-year programme - which if successful onthe Irwell, will lead to further restocking onthe Rivers Roch, Irk and Medlock.It was a great pleasure to see them beingstocked and those who know me will beaware of my boyhood fascination with theRiver Irk in particular, as it was regularlycoloured with dyes from mills etc. along itslength. I was delighted to see the Irwellgrayling lining up as they drifted into the flowof the river. All this adds to the quality of the wildlife inthis once dead river and its tributaries and Ihope that I will be present at future stockingsand be able to see its continued progress tobecoming a thriving fishery once more.

The IrwellStocking of

GraylingRod Calbrade

As recorder for fishes for the Lancashire &Cheshire Fauna Society and a trustee of theGrayling Research Trust I knew of no past(pre 21st century) record whatsoever forgrayling (Thymallus thymallus) in the Irwell,the major tributary of the Mersey. All pastreports by the Society have stated “In Lancs.,found in Hodder and Ribble only” (Ellison andChubb, 1962), or, more recently, “A speciesfound in Lancashire and North Merseysideonly in the middle and upper Ribble andHodder, but which is expanding its range intothe Calder and Ribble below Calderfootfollowing the cleaning up of the Calder.”(Greenhalgh, 2017). This status is confirmed

by the Grayling Society’s records (e.g. inRoberts, 1982).It came as a great surprise when I wasinformed that the Environment Agency hadstocked the Irwell on 18 July 2018 with 3000Grayling, on the grounds that some anglershave claimed to have recently caughtGrayling in the Irwell and some of itstributaries, including Bradshaw Brook (whichI sampled during the early 1980s and neversaw a single Grayling) and the River Rochnear Rochdale. Had Grayling occurred in anypart of the Irwell in recent years keenGrayling anglers living in or very close to thecatchment whom I know well would have

Grayling and the River IrwellMalcolm Greenhalgh


been well aware of it. Furthermore, zoologistsworking at both the Manchester Museum (e.g.Alan Brindle) and Bolton Museum (AlfredHazelwood), who were active recorders herein northwest England during the 20thcentury, would have recorded the species hadit occurred anywhere in the Irwell system.Both the EA and local angling clubs haveargued that the Grayling did exist in the riverin historic times, the evidence coming from abook, The River Irwell: pleasant reminiscences ofthe nineteenth century and suggestions forimprovement by J. Corbett, published in 1907.Corbett admitted at the start of Chapter 10,‘Angling in the Irwell’, that “I have never beenan angler, except as a boy accompanying myfather, Edward Corbett, who was a fairlyenthusiastic fisherman,” so he quoted from atalk given by his father to the ManchesterAnglers’ Association on 14 October 1879 andpublished the same year by the Association ina volume Anglers’ Evenings. J. Corbett’s 1907 book quotes his father: “Ofcourse I was converted to fly-fishing, andpursued my way, with or without one or moreof my companions, as far as Ringley Weirhole.There we generally caught some fish, and atsundry places on the way we had more orless success; often bringing home ten ortwelve fine fish, either grayling, chub, or dace;occasionally only gudgeons and minnows.”

MisquoteThat is the only mention of Grayling in the1907 book, but it is a misquote of his father’sAnglers’ Evenings piece, for there the wordgrayling does not appear. Instead his fathertook home “graining, chub, or dace”.Furthermore, his father tells us that, ‘Theyare a fine fish of good flavour, like a herring insize, form, and colour, and not so broad as adace, nor so thick as a chub. They aredescribed in Webster’s Dictionary as ‘Graining(Leuciscus Lancastriensis), a small fish found inEngland and Switzerland.” We caught themin the rapids generally....’

Graining also feature in the Rev. W.Houghton’s book British Fresh-Water Fishes, firstpublished coincidentally in 1879, for on page74 of the 1981 edition he lists two separatespecies of dace, Leuciscus vulgaris and Leuciscus

lancastriensis. On page 76 he deals with thesubject of the Graining: ‘Dace, like most otherkinds of fish, are subject to variety, andichthyologists now regard the Graining, firstmentioned by Pennant, and described as adifferent species by Yarrell in the LinnaeanSociety’s Transactions (vol. xvii., pl.i., p.5), underthe name of Leuciscus lancastriensis, as a merevariety of Dace. Pennant says, “in the Mersey,near Warrington, and in the river Alt, whichruns by Sephton, Lancashire, into the Merseynear Formby, a fish called Graining is taken...”’

Local variationGraining also appear in Ellison and Chubb(loc. Cit., 1962): “The Graining, L. LancastriensisShaw, has often been recorded in the past asa separate species, but is simply a localvariation of the typical Dace.”So it seems clear that the L&CFS reportslimiting the distribution of grayling in(traditional) Lancashire to just the Ribble andHodder were correct, and it seems likely thatany recent record was of fish introduced byanglers into the river (e.g. a 12 inch fish wascaught downstream of the stocking on 18 July2018). It seems unfortunate that the EA failedto check thoroughly the reference given byCorbett, where ‘Graining’ became ‘Grayling’.Would they have stocked the river had theyknown that?But there is another point. If there had beena Grayling population in the Irwell which, likethe Brown trout population, becamerestricted by the foul pollution of the river’slower reaches and tributaries to the cleanerheadwaters, would there have been a need toartificially stock? Surely the Grayling stockswould have increased rapidly as the riverbecame clean during the present century, justas the Brown Trout stocks have increased andas Grayling have increased in the Burnley(Ribble) Calder when it became clean?Furthermore, if there was a Graylingpopulation in the Irwell, would artificialstocking using fish from a Midland’s hatcheryhave been wise, for the native Irwellpopulation would presumably have beengenetically adapted to the Irwell and thatgenetic integrity threatened by stocking withnon-Irwell fish?

The Irwell, which has become so cleanduring the 21st century, is now a great wildBrown Trout river, stocked by fish from theunpolluted headwaters. Having been stockedit ought now to become a great Grayling river.I would like to thank Keith Harwood and DrDmitri Logunov of Manchester Museum forhelp in the preparation of this paper.

ReferencesE. Corbett (1879) Angling in the Irwell. Anglers’Evenings, First series pp. 102-116. Manchester AA.

J. Corbett (1907) The River Irwell. Abel Heywood,London.

N.F. Ellison and J.C. Chubb (1962) The marine andfreshwater fishes of Lancashire and Cheshire.Lancashire & Cheshire Fauna Committee 32nd Rept.pp1-34.

M. E. Greenhalgh (2017) Freshwater Fish, in White S.J.(ed.) et al. The Vertebrates of Lancashire, L&CFSPublication 122.

Rev. W. Houghton (1879) British Fresh-Water Fishes.Peerage Books, London.

J. Roberts (1982) The Grayling Angler. Witherby, London.

Grayling Research in SwedenHarry Salmgren

I have made a small effort to spread aninteresting piece of grayling research inLule River.Here is the Swedish outprinthttps://sverigesradio.se/artikel/7117861

Also a small note in English that I madehere:There will be serious investments made

for improving the knowledge andhabitats for fish in 2019 in River Luleaccording to Swedish Vattenfall.Heavy investments made for fish-improving measures will be launched inthe regulated waters during 2019. Radio-tagged grayling is hoped to give answers towhat measures are needed.It is part of an ongoing research anddevelopment project, where we locatewhere the grayling is spawning in the LuleRiver. We have seen that some riversections hold great many more graylingthan other, although the habitats look thesame. These are parts of the river with thesame type of regulation of water flow andwe have become interested in why it is so,says Henrik Viklands who is theenvironmental coordinator at Vattenfallhydroelectric power.The County Administrative Board's

electric fishing boats have been used tomap the population of fish in thereservoirs. We have seen that in forexample the Letsi reservoir has a verysmall population of grayling, while on theother hand the Porsi reservoir has highdensities of big adult grayling. Today wedon’t know why.With the help of radio transmitter taggedgrayling, Vattenfall is now hoping to getthe answers to why Porsi is so good anduse that info for implementing measuresin other lesser productive parts of the river.Exactly like that! We want to learn moreabout where the grayling spawn and whatit needs for better living conditions andfood supply. With this knowledge we canrestore the Letsi reservoir, says HenrikViklands.

This is a sketchy translation by me fromthe article by Ulf Larsson, P4 Norrbotten.For more info mail Ulf:[email protected]

All the best Harry Salmgren

Harry Salmgren/sverigesekreterare i GS.https://www.graylingsociety.net/


PRODUCT REVIEW / GERBER

How to Overcome the Fear of LossDr. Axel Wessolowski

Knock on wood – so far I've never lost one ofmy tools or accessories to a river or lake.Don't get me wrong: I did drop things, butwas always lucky enough to retrieve thegravity driven item. And I use zingers andretractors, respectively. Over the years I hadseveral types from cheap to expensive, fromreally useful to absolute b*ll*cks. Myimpression was that to get a very usefulretractor you have to pay a lot of money forit; for example the Abel zinger starts ataround £95!All the more was I excited when I learnedabout the new tool series from Americanmanufacturer Gerber. At an outdoor fair lastyear I had a chance to see for myself whatthe rumor is all about. I was instantly takenby the two retractors Gerber offers: made tolast, well-thought-out and the price isreasonable.Gerber offers two "tethers": the largerDefender and the compact Defender (Iwonder where the name stems from …). Thesmaller retractor is great for smaller tools likeyour nippers, small scissors, etc. The largeone is suitable to hold heavier equipment likepliers or forceps. A lock system gives youabsolute control over your tool.Both Defenders feature aluminiumhousings, 48 inch Dyneema cables, anodized

aluminium finger rings, split rings, lanyardholes and retention clips. The compactDefender is also equipped with a threaded pin!Such details must have their price, youmight say. Of course you have to paysomething for so much careful considerationregarding design and materials, but that's thesurprise. The large Defender costs about £38and the compact one about £27. These pricesare really fair, almost unbelievable.The two Defenders totally convinced me, soI had a look at the other tools for thefisherman made by Gerber. Pliers, line cutterand a fillet knife caught my eye. All designedand made with the same thoroughness andquality. I admit, the pliers and knife (10") willbe used by me mainly for pike fishing, buteverything else will suit any other fly fishingneeds.In the end you have to decide how muchyou want to spend on a retractor. A choicesurely to be made in regard what it's going tobe "retract". You don't want entrust yourprecious £80 nipper to a cheaply made £5zinger, or do you?Gerber has come with two great retractorswhich offer you high quality for a veryreasonable price and will surly help you withovercoming your fear of loss. Well, the fear ofloosing a fish is a totally different matter …

The "Magnipliers" from Gerber feature ergonomic handledesign, thumb lock, exchangeable jaw tips and carbidecutters and tether points.

The back of the two retractors offer several fastening options.The Aluminium ring's dimension are large enough for fingers.The cutter has exchangeable cutters, a line/fly holder and aneedle for cleaning hook eyes.

The pliers come with a nylon sheaththat has a belt loop and a coiledlanyard.

Gerber's "controller" fillet knife is 10"long and comes with its own sheathwhich has a sharpener attached.Excellent grip, even when wet.

The latest fisherman's tools made byAmerican brand Gerber offers a widerange of re-designed and sophisticatedtools; i. a. pliers, knives, cutter, scissorsand two retractors that offer a fantasticprice/performance ratio.

Defenders by Gerber: I'm convinced the naming is nocoincidence – both retractors are solidly built from aluminiumand screwed together. Kind of edgy, but also of timelessbeauty; just like the good Land Rover Defenders … On theright you can see the "Freehander" line cutter.

The trophy is presented to an individual, or group, whether members of the GS or not,from any worldwide location, who have carried out outstanding works for the Society or thebenefit of Grayling. The idea is to recognise the efforts of the ‘unsung heroes’ – members,conservationists, students etc. It is also a great opportunity to promote the Society and its aims.

Any member can nominate, so long as he/she is not the sole participant or beneficiary.Once again this can be a member or not.

The nomination should be in writing, with supporting evidence, in order that thePresident can make a credible decision.

The submission should be to Robin Mulholland, the President and, if he considers he needsto discuss the merits with anyone, or with the Committee, that remains his sole decision.

The trophy will be presented at each AGM.The trophy will be held for ONE YEAR then returned to the PRO of the Society for

safekeeping and all applications must be received by 31st July in the year of award.Robin Mulholland OBE, Knapp Cottage, 38/39 Corton, Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 OSZ

THE PRESIDENT’S REEL

Grayling Prize


1848. He was obviously a talented angler,winning not just the Grayling Prize, but also anumber of other competitions, including theclub championship. The club presidencychanged annually and Francis served his yearas President in 1854. In 1877 he won theAggregate Challenge Cup, which turned up atauction in Edinburgh in 1912, so maybe theGrayling Prize was disposed of similarly? Hislast recorded trophy win was the Club Prize in1887 and he ceased to be a member in 1891,the reason recorded being – “Dead”. There is some dubiety about the oldestfishing club in the world. The Ellem FishingClub (established on Tweedside in 1829) laysclaim to this, however, the club was dissolvedfor long periods during each of the two worldwars, so the WOSAC claims it is “the oldestclub in continuous existence”. It had its firstmeeting on 29 April 1834 in the WaterlooTavern, Glasgow when it was called the Westof Scotland Piscatorial Club. Members wererequired to be “lovers of piscatorialamusements”. In addition to angling outings

to various waters, including the River Clyde atAbington, there were social activities.The WOSAC held a two day fly-fishingcompetition for the Club Prize and theChallenge Plate each May from 1834 until1878 on the upper Clyde, and from 1844 theywere held at Abington. Records show anglerswould each catch (and kill ) per day about 20trout averaging just over 2oz. It may be thesmall average size was partly why the clubdeveloped an interest in grayling. Travel wasby mail-coach or horseback until the railwayopened in 1849 allowing Abington and otherrivers and lochs to be more easily reached. The club had a tradition of awardingtrophies in the form of silver jugs and silverplates, and it seems that outright winnerswere expected to provide a replacement. TheGrayling Prize (pictured) was at least its sixthsilver jug, the first being presented in 1845.Up to 1863 all the jugs and plates werecompeted for in Spring or Summer. The fifthjug, however, presented by John Jeffrey MD in1863, was competed for on Clyde from 1863to 1865 in late October, a new departure forWOSAC. Being held outwith the trout seasonthey were likely to have been graylingoutings. In 1865 the fifth jug was won byGeorge Anderson who in turn in 1866presented a 6th jug, i.e. the Grayling Prize. 1868 is the last reference in the WOSACrecord to a silver jug, however, the mysterydeepens as an entry in the record for 5thSeptember 1873 states a "Grayling Prize"presented by Francis Smith was won by T AAnderson on Clyde at Abington with two fishweighing 11.5oz. This is the only specificmention of a Grayling Prize in the WOSAC’scompetition records. In 1875 a Silver Platepresented by Francis Smith was competed foron the Clyde in May and won by GeorgeSellar. This trophy does not appear again inthe competition records. Whether it is thesame trophy as the Grayling Prize presentedby Francis Smith two years earlier is unclear.

The Great Grayling Experiment

In the early 1850s there were no grayling inScotland. However, in 1855, around the timewhen trout ova were being shipped toAustralia, the WOSAC secretary was a MajorGeorge Anderson. At a club meeting in July

On 2nd April 2012 the Scottish AnglersNational Association (SANA) received an e-mailfrom Annabel Craighead in New Zealandabout a “very pretty” engraved silver jughanded down to her by her mother whohailed from Glasgow. She’d ascertained it wasmade in 1862 by George Fox in London andengraved by Rait & Sons of Glasgow for theWest of Scotland Angling Club (WOSAC), butdidn’t know how the family came by it andwanted to find out more about it. Her e-mail was passed by SANA to AlanAyre, former Chairman then President of TheGrayling Society (GS), who forwarded it to GSscientific officer Ross Gardner and GS memberWillie Miller. The following words are theresult of co-operation among these three withWillie (sadly no longer with us) doing most ofthe research and writing the initial draft ofthis article. (Willie had a longstandinginterest in the introduction of grayling torivers in Scotland. An article he wrote aboutit was published in the October 1987 issue ofTrout and Salmon, and copied to issue 59 ofGrayling News 2018). Hector MacLennan, the current WOSACsecretary, provided Willie with excerpts froma Minute Book that contained informationdating back to the formation of the Club plusdetails of “The Great Grayling Experiment”the first introduction of Grayling to Scotland(i.e. to the Clyde). Willie gleaned additionalmaterial from “The Field” and otherpublications of the 1850s and 1860s, andWOSAC President, Norman Peden, has sinceprovided Alan with extra details.

The jug engraving reads:-

THEWest of Scotland Angling Club’s

GRAYLING PRIZEPRESENTED

BYGeorge Anderson Esq.

FORANNUAL COMPETITIONTo be retained permanently

by any MemberGaining it three times.

or if in Consecutive Years, twice.1866

Subsequent engraving shows the firstwinner was “FRANCIS SMITH ESQ”. in 1866,then “NOT WON” in the next four years, and“FINALLY GAINED” in 1871 by the sameFRANCIS SMITH ESQ.

Francis joined the WOSAC on 14 March

A long lost piece of Scottishgrayling history

By Alan Ayre


1855 he revealed he had been incorrespondence with Sir E. Colebrooke, aproprietor of the Clyde near Abington,suggesting that the WOSAC should introducegrayling into the Clyde. The club felt that thiswas “an opportunity of doing a great service to thecountry by the introduction into Scottish rivers of afish hitherto unknown in them and ofacknowledged excellence”. George was an efficient organiser and hadalready done some preparatory work. Itresulted in December 1855 with Mr. SamuelEyre, secretary of the Derby Angling Club,putting a specially constructed containercontaining 3 dozenhealthy graylingfrom Rowsley ontoa CaledonianRailway mail train.The rail companyhad agreed to makea special stop atAbington where itwas found onlythree fish had diedwith anotherdescribed as being “sickly”. The remaining 32healthy grayling were put into Clyde “at thebushes a little way down from Abington Bridge”.In the same year Mr. Eyre was made anHonorary Member of the club. (Interestingly,some years later Francis Francis, FrankBuckland and Thomas Tod Stoddart were alsogranted honorary membership.)Since there was some uncertainty regardingthe success of that first attempt, anotherapproach was tried. Some members of theclub had observed a Mr. Ramsbottom “skilfullymanipulating salmon ova for the Tay, atStormontfield”. So, following their writteninstructions, Mr Eyre in the spring of 1857netted two hundred grayling near the marbleworks at Bakewell in Derbyshire. Fifty ofthose were suitable for breeding, resulting insome 20,000 impregnated ova being sent bytrain from Derbyshire in wine bottles halffilled with river water. 2,000 were sent to MrShaw of Drumlanrig to begin stocking theNith. The other 18,000 were put into aspecially prepared pond and stream atAbington, and “to guard against failure” somewere given to Mr. Matthew Brown, 10

Ardgowan Square, Greenock to be put into apond in the hills above Port Glasgow. Later in 1857 the Abington pond was “alive

with young grayling as large as minnows”, and atthe WOSAC Annual Dinner in NovemberGeorge placed on the table “a globe containinga few living specimens of grayling artificiallyhatched and reared from spawn”. On 8 April1858 the pond was run off. The largestgrayling measured 6¼ inches, the smallest 4inches and the average was 5½ inches. Afterit was refilled many fish escaped into theClyde as a result of deliberate damage to thezinc screens at the outlet, with local anglers

impatient to catchthe new fish beingsuspected. When itwas finally drainedon 12 November1858 only 160grayling werefound some ofwhich were sent toPerthshire andreleased into theDochart. Those

remaining were put into the Daer Water inthe headwaters of the Clyde system.The WOSAC instructed that all graylingcaught had to be returned until they werewell established, and in 1859 a meetingconvened by the various proprietors of theUpper Clyde fishings was held with WOSACbecause there were shared concerns about thenumber of individuals fishing with maggots.One proposal was to seek a Protection Orderso as to better control the fishing. However,the fish grew quickly and by November 1859grayling up to a pound in weight were notuncommon and small ones about 5 incheslong were in such shoals that the local fisherswere “quite pestered with them”. They werespread over a large extent of water, includingfar up some tributaries, and in 1861 the clubannounced it “no longer expects anglers toabstain from basketing their captures”. When the competition for the Club Prizewas held at Abington in May 1862. severalgrayling were caught, and two daysbeforehand one person had killed 15 in lessthan an hour a short distance belowAbington Bridge. Reports suggested they

could become as numerous as the trout.However, when the club organised its firstdedicated grayling competition in October1863, members caught only two of 13 oz. and9 oz, and further outings proved little betterdespite other Clyde anglers being much moresuccessful. At most 6 anglers turned up tothe autumn grayling outings and this wasdown to two by 1873, which appears to havebeen the club’s last one. It may be that theywere discontinued because members weredisillusioned with their disappointing catches,but the rise in importance of good lochfishing may also have played a part; trout inLochs Lomond, Ard, Venachar and Leven weremuch bigger than the small ones they wereused to catching at Abington. Anglers elsewhere were impressed by thesuccess of the Clyde “experiment”, so Georgeoffered to supply fish to other Scottish rivers(and to Ireland, an offer that was not takenup). In the 1870s he became chairman of asilver mining company in Utah near Salt LakeCity, but in 1873 the business collapsedresulting in his personal bankruptcy. Despitethis he served as a Liberal MP for Glasgowbetween 1868 and 1885, eventually resigningto take up the post of Deputy-Master of theMint in Melbourne, Australia.VerminGrayling fishing on Clyde and other Scottishrivers, particularly the Earn, became verypopular. However, in the late Victorian eraanglers on the English chalk streamscomplained that grayling competeunfavourably with trout, with Halfordrecording one as saying he hoped the last

pike would choke on the last grayling. Thisunjustified belief continued for the best partof a century during which time they wereclassed as vermin, netted, and latterlyelectro-fished in vain attempts to reduce oreven exterminate populations. The dogmaspread northwards into Scotland where manyclubs and proprietors, even on Clyde, askedanglers to kill all grayling, and thousandswere thrown up the bank. In 1977 theGrayling Society was formed to protect thefish, yet into the 1990s a few Scottish clubpermits still required them to be killed.Today things have changed for the better: thegrayling is recognised as a salmonid, andfishing for them has become almost a cultpursuit. Despite this it is still not uncommonto find an odd ghillie or keeper who wantsthese beautiful wild fish destroyed “becausethey eat salmon eggs”.Meanwhile, Mrs Craighead still has thesilver jug and would like it to come back toScotland. Grayling outings have beenreinstituted by the WOSAC over the lasttwenty years with regular visits to the RiverEarn, so they are keen to have it back. MrsCraighead and I have therefore agreed itshould be returned to them when it will onceagain, after nearly 150 years, be awarded tothe winner of their annual graylingcompetition. The President assures me, however,that it will not be “retained permanently”,and will be made available to interestedparties (such as the GS) for exhibition orstudy, on application to the club secretary.

A happy closure to this long lost piece ofScottish grayling history.

The Righyni-Roose Trophy 2019

Any article, essay, poem, etc., will be welcome. Entries must reach Rob Hartley by

September 1st 2019

The theme of this year’s Trophy competition is

The Written Word


knowledge of such matters.The Victorians were persistent. In The Field of14 May 1864 there was an amusing report fromFrank Buckland of an attempt to obtainspawning grayling from a pond at Aldermastonowned by Mr Higford Burr. “Nothing comes upto the delights of dragging a pond or emptying abarn well stocked with rats.” There was anaside, however, to the effects that rats are socunning that they have been known to desertthe barn the night before they are to bemurdered. The aside was well-justified. Thenetting operation produced only frogs!Mr Burr had made earlier attempts. On 14 April1860 he recounted that in 1852 he put “10 or 11brace, full of spawn into the Kennet. He did notmention whether there were any “full of milt”.On 25 June 1864 there is a reference to 1470grayling fry being “placed in the River Lea”.Could this be the origin of the prolific stockswhich once inhabited the Lea?In the following few years there were isolatedreports of an odd grayling being caught in theThames near the areas where they had beenstocked, but then there appeared to be a lull inthe proceedings.

Stockings of other waters were still takingplace, some with success, others not. On 19October 1867 there was a description of effortsby Mr Bassell (Basset?) of Tehidy Park, Cornwall.He commissioned Mr Williams, a tackle dealerfrom Hereford to make the necessaryarrangements. As a result 95 grayling were sentfrom the Lugg, of which 83 arrived safely. A yearlater, 5 September 1868, it was reported that thefish were doing well and that some had beenreleased into a neighbouring brook. Could thishave been the beginning of the story of graylingin the South West corner of England?Throughout these years there were alsomovements of other species. The transfer oftrout spawn to the Antipodes is welldocumented, but things were also happeningslightly nearer home. The issue of 13 March1869 makes reference to “1000 young Rhinesalmon” to be put into the Usk “through thekindness of Mr Buckland”.Some, however, had not given up on the

grayling. “The Field” of 12 December 1874contained a letter from Francis Francis. Promptedby a circular advertising grayling fry at £4.10shillings (£4.50) per thousand he suggestedanother attempt. There was some immediatesupport. Unfortunately I don’t have any furtherdetails of the actions taken by the supporters.

There is no doubt that attempts did continueand that techniques and strategies did improve,to the extent that hints of successful outcomesbegan to be published. It would appear that as aresult of larger numbers concentrated in shorterstretches of river, grayling began to be“acclimatised”. This was particularly true in thetributaries of the Thames.On 18 June 1887 there was news that theHenley on Thames Association had ordered 5000fry from Thomas Ford of Castor who claimedthat he had been successful in his attempt tofeed grayling fry with “artificial food”. (InSeptember of the same year the sameassociation ordered some Loch Leven trout fromHowietoun in Stirlingshire).In March 1869 there was a report that theRiver Pang was “well stocked with grayling”.In the following month 100 grayling in the 6 to8 inch class were obtained from Mr T Andrewsof Guildford and placed in a shallow in theLoddon near its junction with the Thames.

Despite the fact that the only real successeshad been in the tributaries some clubs didcontinue to try the slower reaches of the mainriver. On 20 December 1890 the Reading andDistrict AA stocked their stretch of the Thameswith “11½ brace of magnificent grayling rangingin weight from 1½lb to 2¼lb”. These wereobtained from the Hungerford Fly Fishing Club.Of course it is possible that grayling hadinhabited Thames and its tributaries at someearlier time, but well-known and well informedVictorian anglers were certain that they werestarting from scratch. Whatever the trueposition it is certain that the Thames and atleast some of its tributaries received numbers ofgrayling from various parts of England. Perhapsfuture advances in genetic research will be ableto clarify things for us.

The Silver Lady and Old Father Thames Willie passed away last year and Alan Ayre found this draft article amongst hispapers. It is not dated, but was probably written in the 1990s when he wroteseveral other articles.

Recent advances in gene technology suggestthat we may soon be able to gain an insight intothe origins of stocks of grayling currentlyresiding in various river systems. Worthwhileinformation can also be obtained from oldrecords and publications.In the 19thC various attempts were made tointroduce grayling to the River Thames. Itwould appear, however, that Her Ladyship didnot take easily to the “Old Man”. Details ofsome of the trials together with some possiblereasons for failure are to be found in The Field,the Country Gentleman’s Newspaper, and thefollowing notes are derived mainly from itspublications of the 1800s. In those days The Field was a weeklypublication which consisted of many pages ofsmall print, containing letters and articles on avariety of rural subjects. Among other things itprovided a record of the enthusiasm of theVictorians for “acclimatisation”.Of particular interest to us are the attempts to“acclimatise” grayling into “new” rivers. On 11March 1860 there were references to the earliertransfer of grayling from the Hampshire Avon tothe Test in 1820, from Test to Itchen in 1827 andfrom Test to Thames in 1836. This last wasalmost bound to fail since only 4 brace wereinvolved. Several years later, however, a 3½lbgrayling was caught at Shepperton Lock.

The really serious attempts began in 1860when the Thames Angling Preservation Society(TAPS) passed a resolution that “It is desirablethat grayling should be introduced into the RiverThames, and that the honorary secretary behereby authorised to carry the same into effect.”At that time the TAPS water extended fromRichmond to Staines. Accordingly the secretary wrote to “severalnoblemen and others” who “very kindly grantedthe request to take grayling out of theirstreams.” Some fine detail of the resultingtransfers appears in The Field on three separateoccasions – 2 June 1860, 20 December 1874, and1 March 1890. One of the authors was a riverkeeper and another had been an official of TAPS.While the details are not identical there issufficient common ground to allow us to be

fairly certain of some facts:- In the early 1860s approximately 400 graylingwere obtained from a variety of rivers includingthe Hampshire Avon, the Teme, the Lugg andthe Derbyshire Wye. These were put intovarious stretches of Thames includingShepperton Weir, Chertsey Bridge and PentonHook. In the opinion (24 March 1860) of CharlesKingsley FLS FSA etc etc (the Charles Kingsley?)any attempts to stock the Thames would failsince barbel would eat the spawn. “No fish thatspawns in gravel could resist him.”

Around the same time TAPS set up a committeeto investigate the possibility of breeding troutand grayling by artificial means. Two membersof the committee were Francis Francis andFrank Buckland, both well respected experts.On 18 April 1863 Mr. Buckland reported that“Mr Ponder had been able to obtain a fair supplyof ova”. Between 15,000 and 20,000 eggs had beenobtained from Shropshire. It was also reported,however, that they had hatched in 14 days.A fortnight later “G.A.” wrote from Glasgowstating the opinion that grayling hatched in asshort a time as 14 days would not survive. “G.A.”was George Anderson, the person who hadorganised the stocking of the Clyde severalyears earlier.Attempts were also being made to obtainsstocks from foreign sources. There was a report,on 25 April 1863, of a loss of grayling spawn sentby the French government to Mr Ponder. FrancisFrancis and Frank Buckland.Perhaps more attention should have beengiven to that of Mr Anderson and that of MrSamuel Eyre who had pointed out on 10 January1863 that, while the Thames contained excellentfeeding, the rate of fall of the Thames betweenLochdale and London was less than 21 inchesper mile, which resulted in far too slow a flowfor a good grayling stream. He felt that certaintributaries and the upper reaches of the mainriver would provide better prospects, but gave areminder that those were blocked by locks andweirs. An aerated “fish carrier” designed by MrEyre had been used in a number of projects totransfer both trout and grayling around thecountry. This gave Mr Eyre worthwhile

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Willie Miller

48


spiced home-made vegetable soup andlavishly buttered doorsteps of local bread, wetogged-up and headed upstream for a couplemiles to the top of Fin’s stretch. In spite of one of the driest summers andautumns on record (we seem to hear thatalmost every year now, don’t we?) the Tweedwas still offering a good pushable flow ofwater and the pools, though thinned, stillproviding enough cover for holding fish -certainly enough to begin my introduction tothe increasingly popular (European/Czech/French) nymphing style of fishing. Apart from a half-hearted couple of hourswith a pal’s Tenkara rod, this was going to bemy first serious experience in fishing withouta fly line. Fin handed me a ten foot, fourweight, Streamflex, rigged with a twelve footleader attached to thirty foot of monofilamentplus backing line. And attached to theleader’s hi-vis colour-graded indicator tip, asix foot cast with two small nymph droppers,and bomb of a bug on the point to get thenymphs down to feeding depth. Now all I hadto do was learn to cast the contraption. The best way I can describe it is: start withthe twelve foot leader and cast outside therod-tip, and from the downstream startingposition (index finger trapping the line torod), transition seamlessly from adownstream straight-armed arcing lift, upand over your head, into an upstreamforward lob, ending in (hopefully) droppingthe nymph at the head of the pool. Get thatbit right - not easy to start with as it goesagainst all the conventional norms of casting- then learn to control the drift (much easier).The trick is always to have the rod raised tohold leader in the air - tip end of the colouredindicator just about kissing the surface of thewater - rod tip leading the procession down-stream. If you’ve judged the length of thecast correctly, you should feel the heavilyweighted nymph, lightly bouncing along theriver’s bed - being led - not dragged by - therod tip. The difficulty is then sorting thewheat from the chaff, between bottomsnaggings and the takes. Needless to say youstrike at every perceived deviation of flow butslowly come to differentiate between thesubtle differences of gentle, mouthing tugs and

the more abrupt snagging of nature’sobstacles. But at the end of every cast, youmust let the line run downstream and acrossbehind you - always flicking your wrist as alast optimistic strike on any following fish -which is how I hooked into my first one ofthe afternoon. Defiant, strong, and head-shakinglyobstinate; my rod was bent alarmingly in avariety of different directions. Catching a fewsub-surface glimpses of the twisting, flashingbody, Fin was convinced I was into a good twopound grayling. Then fifteen seconds later......lost! And again, the same scenario half anhour later. This time, broken off at the net.But the main thing was I was getting thehang of it. Then as the last of the light was allbut disappeared - success came to the net!Not a grayling but a lovely, wild, twelve inchyoung brownie, offering itself up as proof ofthe river’s health. In the meantime Fin had caught andreleased two cracking grayling. But I wasquietly chuffed with my own varying degreeof success and a growing attachment to thisnewly found technique. By now the worsening weather - rain nowsleeting icily in the forecasted biting winds,allied to the day’s four am start - had firmlycemented my need for a dram or two of old-bone warming Highland mist.

Arkadi de Rakoff

For years I’d been hearing the same oldmantra, that I was either - In the wrong placeat the wrong time. Or the right place at the wrongtime. Or the wrong place at the right time. Thesehave applied throughout a long career in thefilm business when inevitably on location,prevailing weather conditions were just whatwe didn’t want. “Ah, you should have beenhere last week - conditions were just perfect”.Does that ring a bell with my fishing brethrenout there? - well I’d bet a pound to a pinch ofthe old proverbial, it does! And wouldn’t youjust know it, two daysbefore I was due to to flyup to Edinburgh, I got thedreaded call. “Well, it’s up toyou, Kadi, but the forecast isdreadful”. It had taken mefive years to firm up thistrip (three times previouslycancelled due tounforeseen circumstances)- it was a birthday presentfor a spot of Highlandfishing from my pal, FinWilson, a member of theHardy Academy and highlyexperienced guide.In the main, my previousdedicated grayling fishinghas been confined toEngland’s pastoral chalk streams - the lasttwo outings being this year’s Grayling Societyand WTT annual charity jollies on the Testand Itchen. Both days hugely enjoyable andproductive; plenty of eager (stocked) brownsbetween two and three pounds, and massesof grayling up to a pound and little bit. But a subsequent email from Fin, with picsof the two-three pounders which he regularlycatches on his waters in early winter, had trulywhet my appetite for more of these glorious,red- finned ladies. So with this temptation inmind, weather or no weather, I wasdetermined not to be denied the chance, andheaded for Gatwick to catch my flight north.

When Fin picked me up at the airport, skieswere leaden, winds gusting, temperaturedropping steadily towards zero, and forecastto get considerably worse overnight andincreasingly so over the next few days. But sofar no rain, the river was still at a reasonableheight and we had every chance of gettingout on the water that afternoon before theweather closed in completely. Buoyed by that sliver of hope, and judgingfrom the copious amounts of food and drinkwe sourced from local suppliers in the lovely

market town of Peebles, I knew at least thehospitality would be wonderful - and on theway to our destination, my spirits furtherlifted by odd glimpses of a glorious, late-autumn clad river. Fin’s one of the most fortunate people Iknow. He resides in an old converted postoffice in a tiny Borders village, literally theother side of the road from the banks of theupper Tweed, on which he leases a three milestretch from the local estate. Housing aplethora of named pools and infinite varietiesof habitat for Salmon, Sea Tout, Brown Troutand Grayling, Fin’s domain is a fishingparadise. After a steaming bowl of delicately

G ra y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 9G r a y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 9 5352

I’d previously attempted salmon fishing onfour (unsuccessful) trips, in England, Ireland,Scotland and Wales - and always confrontedin various regional accents with the dreaded“Aahh, you should have been here last week”. Sonow, whilst fishing for grayling in conditionsthat had become all but impossible to catchany kind of fish - I had managed to land myfirst salmon. Okay: not huge, not big, or evenbig-ish; but a lovely lean, well mended henfish who’d graced the redds of the upperTweed with her bounty, and hopefully wouldreturn for many more fruitful seasons tocome, each year grown in stature, beauty andmaturity. I was beyond myself withexcitement - and that was it! “Enough,Kadi?”…“Aye Finster. Hee-Land mist time” - said

in my puny attempt at a local accent. Overnight the river had risen another fiveinches and was now totally unfishable. Soonly ever having planned to fish just themorning before my afternoon flight, it wasn’ttoo great a loss. And if I learned anything onthat trip, other than acquiring a newtechnique - it was that in order for me tocatch a salmon, I had to disguise myself as agrayling fisherman So maybe next yearwhen I return it should be as a salmon fisher;in hope of that landing that elusive, prizedTartan lady!

For info on fishing in the area, contact:[email protected] or his website:ww.fishwild.co.uk

Fin had warned me, that by day’s end, if Iwasn’t feeling a good old ache at the top ofmy lobbing arm it was proof I hadn’t beencasting right. So now, relaxing in acomfortable seat beside his wood burningstove, it was aching sure enough. But by mysecond (not so wee) dram of Fin's HighlandMist, the ache was relaxing considerably.

Rising river

Overnight, sleet had turned to downpour,and breakfast time had Fin consulting hiswater monitoring app - announcing the riverwas up three inches on the previous eveningand rising steadily. We’d best get out quicklybecause my chances for one those wonderfultwo pound plus grayling looked to be fastdisappearing.Another lovely stretch just below a craggyold stone bridge - pools on the far bank and anice level bottom for wading. But now I waswaist deep in the mid stream casting zone,and boy was it cold!. Serves me right forpacking lightweight waders but I at least thesense to pack thermals and joggingpants which I was wearingunderneath. For the next couple ofhours I was totally immersed inlobbing the bomb, searching the lies,keeping that high-vis tip just uprightof the water, all the while movingsteadily downstream: and there wereamongst the definite bottomingsnaggings, a few possible plucks - butnothing sticking to prove me right. Fin suggested we hike furtherdownstream to one of his favouritespots. Again the pool was far side,and this time, heavily tree-lined withlow branch overhangs. Needless tosay the first lob ended with myleader hopelessly entangled in anoverhang, in spite of Fin’s(unheeded) warning to shorten thecast. But the brrr factor of theworsening wind on my bare skinnow felt near artic - arthritic fingershardly working. I had to stand bylike a stupid schoolboy as a newthree nymph cast was assembled forme. After taking a welcome hot soup

break, it was back to work. Determined not toshow myself up again, I followed instructions,adjusted the leader and successfully managedto access the pool underneath the overhangs. In spite of fishing beneath a high protectivebank at my back, the wind was gusting andswirling so viciously that at certain points itwas actually knocking me off balance in thewater and making it all but impossible tocontrol the cast at the correct depth. And totop it all, by early afternoon it was absolutelybucketing down. Fin, already having banked his rod, hadbeen keeping a weather eye on me for thelast half an hour. And his sudden shouted cryof “Strike!” synchronised perfectly with myown reaction! “Don’t lose it, Kadi - it’s a cracker!”The fight was fantastic, tantalising;upstream, downstream, across and back, zigand zag, always keeping to the deep - in factabsolutely anywhere but near to Fin’s waitingnet. And determined this would not be theprize that got away….it was finally netted!Not the expected grayling - but a SALMON!! Across

1 Angling for a cutting edge bit of kit? (7, 5)3 A rugby manoeuvre that fisherfolk spend

good money on. (6)6 A last testament that is in Latin initially,

comes with a firearm up North and containsa salmon fly as a legacy. (6, 4)

8 Even the Prince of Wales with a line of threadon a spool isn’t such a well known angler. (7,6)

11 The King had varied attributes, allowing him to stay afloat when all around him sank! (4)

12 Sounds like the famous Scot who won at Stirling could cast with a centre-pin. (6)

14 Twice this Scottish river has given its name to a type of cast. (6,4)

15 The Head Keeper is seen returning up to them in water. (5)

17 Smoking, drinking and wild wild women.... often associated with flytying! (5)

20 Could you murder this kind of shrimp? (6)21 Dr Agnew holds on tight to try and stop his

fish from running. (4)22 Many miles per hour initially holds fish food

below the surface. (5)23 A dry fly invented by a pair of Brocks? (6,6)

Down

2 Going on a plane with these can reduce your chances of having children but take uproom in your tackle box. (6,7)

4 An arcane rodeo rider holds the kind of tackle he should slow down to use. (4,3)

5 PC Lupine Liquor adjusted his tell-tale for an arresting indicator of piscine activity. (9,5)

7 A Scottish tune on the fiddle hooks ‘em down South, resulting in a topsy-turvy presentation. (3,4)

9 The incoming parachutist had ten different ways of holding on to her catch. (7,3)

10 A cull of French ducks by less than 50 Romans provides plenty of feathers for flytying. (3,2,6)

13 If you’re feeling down, add one of these for luck and go salmon fishing with it. (4,5)

16 Woodcock, Knots, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Snipe.....they’re all seen when the angler hits the depths. (6)

18 The French snake lost D day but still came in front of the fly. (6)

19 What salmon do even without legs? (3)

Solution on Page 64 (Back of theSymposium Booking Form)

Crossword No.4Dr. Iain Gibb

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY

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Area 3 - London, Kent, Essex,Middlesex, Hertfordshire, East SussexGeoff Wood89 Charles Street, Berkhamsted Herts HP4 3DJ 07769 [email protected]

Area 4 - Hereford, Worcestershire,Gloucestershire, Warwickshire,Shropshire & Powys, Dyfed, Gwent,West, Mid & South GlamorganGeoff BevanFishweir Farm, St. Mary ChurchCowbridge,Vale of Glamorgan CF71 7LTTel: 01446 774223Email: [email protected]

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Area 8 - Derbyshire, South Yorkshire,Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire &NorfolkBrian Clarke21 Corve Way, Holme HallChesterfield, Derbyshire S40 4YATel: 01246 271324 Mob: 07711 905776Email: [email protected]

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TRUSTEES OF THE GRAYLING RESEARCH TRUSTChairmanRichard Cove20 Peel Crescent, Ashton HayesChester, Cheshire CH3 8DBTel: 01829 759376 (home), 03000653897 (work), 07867 908700 (mobile)Email :[email protected]

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ChairmanRob HartleyHartley House, Galveston GroveFenton, Stoke on TrentStaffordshire ST4 3PETel: 07976 222227Email: [email protected]

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TreasurerSteven KavanaghAeolian House, PiccadillyLlanblethian, CowbridgeVale of Glamorgan CF71 7JLTel: 01446 771326Mob: 07814 518467Email: [email protected]

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EditorBob Male24 Victoria Road, Wilton Salisbury, Wiltshire SP2 0DYTel: 01722 503939Mob: 07982 824944Email: [email protected]

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Sales OfficerBrian Clarke21 Corve Way, Holme HallChesterfield, Derbyshire S40 4YATel: 01246 271324 Mob: 07711 905776Email: [email protected]

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Guided fly fishing for Trout and Grayling on the Englishchalk streams and beyond.Tailored guided trips on the English chalk streams.Come and discover the beauty and splendour of thechalk streams and the fish that swim in them. Pike onthe fly and trotting for Grayling also available. Let usknow what you are looking for and we will tailor apackage just for you.

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Flat 1 Church Road, Nether Wallop, Stockbridge, Hampshire, SO20 8ETMobile: +44 7793 652039 [email protected]

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If you would like to fish for wild trout and grayling on a beautifulWiltshire chalk stream, the Wilton Fly Fishing Club has spaces onits waiting list.

For further information, please contact Mike Tebbs, the Membership Secretary, at: [email protected] Tel: 01985 841192

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For all your Fly Fishing Guiding, Tuition, SpecialisedTackle and Holiday/Breaks in the North of England.

Get in touch with The Durham Fly Fishing Companyand let me ‘exceed your expectations’

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DEVON SCHOOL OF FLY FISHINGFox and Hounds Hotel, Eggesford, Devon, EX18 7JZTel: 01363 82786e-mail: [email protected]: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

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COCH-Y-BONDDU BOOKSHeol Pentrerhedyn, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 8DGTel: +44 1654 702837email: e-mail: [email protected]: www.anglebooks.com

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CAERSWS ANGLING ASSOCIATIONTel: 01686 688196e-mail: [email protected]

DERWENT ANGLER'S CLUBTel: 01723 374755e-mail: [email protected]: www.derwentanglers.com

WILTON FLY FISHING CLUBHon Sec: Mike Tebbs Tel: 01985 841192e-mail: [email protected]: www.wiltonffc.co.uk

CORWEN & DISTRICT ANGLING CLUBSecretary: Paul Ainsworth Tel: 07716 489620e-mail: [email protected]: www.corwenanddistrictanglingclub.co.uk

PRINCE ALBERT ANGLING SOCIETYTel: 01477 533999web: http://www.paas.co.uk

FENTON AND DISTRICT ANGLING SOCIETYTel: 01782 870767web: www.fentonanddistrictanglingsociety.co.uk

BUILTH WELLS ANGLINGDan Graham, [email protected]

FEDERATION OF FLY FISHERS DENMARKemail: [email protected]: https://fffd.dk

59

For more information, contact:FishingMatters Ltd, Unit 3, Lawrence House Yard,

Southgate Road, Wincanton BA9 9EB Tel: +44 (0)1963 31623

Mick Williams – Fishing GuideCysgod y Coed B&B and Self Catering

Llanfor, Bala, Gwynedd LL23 7DU01678 520036 or 07896634483

[email protected]

Fancy a bit of fishing on the River Dee or in the mountains andlakes of Snowdonia? We can arrange transport, accommodation,packed lunches & meals out. Arrangements and advice can beprovided for Fishing Licences, Permits, Equipment, Locations, etc.Mick is also available as a Guide if you fancyfishing for trout or grayling. Stay for a shortbreak or even a week.

Tungsten BeadsSpecial Offer for Society Members!

To order or for more info email [email protected] or ring 01543 689117

NEW Colours now available.Round beads in gold, copper, nickel,black (gunmetal) and now in white, brightgreen and hot orange. Sizes from1.5mm up to 4.6mm (depending on colour). Packs of 50 are only £7.50 inc. p&p. State quantity, size and colour.

ALSO - mixed 10 compartment box containing 200 beads (see image).Just state your choice of size and colour – only £28 inc. p&p.


ANDREW CARTWIGHTGAME ANGLING LICENSED FLY CASTING INSTRUCTOR.

BASED IN BEAUTIFUL MID WALES.GUIDING ON THE RIVER SEVERN, WYE, DEE AND THE RIVER

VYRNWY, ALSO REMOTE MOUNTAIN LAKES AND RIVERS FOR GRAYLING AND WILD BROWN TROUT.

Contact ANDREW on

01686 688196 or 07929 469160E-mail: [email protected] Site: www.acgameangling.co.uk

Go Fly Fishing UKSpecialists in the best of the UK’s

River Brown Trout and Grayling fly fishingONE-TO-ONE GUIDING/TUITION AND

TAILOR-MADE SHORT BREAKS

Tel: +44 (0) 1756 748378Email: [email protected]

www.goflyfishinguk.com

Phil Fly FishingPhil Ratcliffe offers guided fishing on the Welsh Dee and Severn

Phone: 07875 718718Web: www.philratcliffeflyfishing.co.uk

Mail: [email protected] & IFFF MCI

Till Fishing Holidays Northumberland

1 mile of grayling, sea trout and salmon fishing on the River Till.

4 star centrally heated orchard cottage available.

Contact Lucy Carroll: 07974 416692Email: [email protected]

Wild trout and graylingfishing in the

Welsh MarchesThe Upper Tanat Fishing Club has fly-fishing for wild trout and grayling (including some real specimens) on 7 miles of a tributary of the upper River Severn and a 9 acre hill lake

in the Welsh Mountains.

Prospective members can obtain further details via www.tanatfishing.com

Area 12 - Chris ThomasScotland

Area 11 - Stuart WardleCo. Durham, Tyne & Wear & Northumberland

Area 10 - Alan SwannLancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, Greater Manchester & Isle of Man

Area 9 - Steve RhodesWest, East & North Yorkshire

Area 8 - Brian ClarkeDerbyshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire & Norfolk

Area 6 - Glynn williamsGwynedd & Clwyd, Wirral & Cheshire

Area 5 - Paul DeavilleLeicestershire, West Midlands, Staffordshire,Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire & Suffolk

Area 4 - Geoff BevanDyfed, Gwent, West, Mid & South Glamorgan

Area 3 - Geoff WoodLondon, Kent, Essex, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, East Sussex

Area 2 - Alex AdamsBerkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire,Oxfordshire, Surrey, West Sussex & Wiltshire

Area 1 - Mark HamnettDevon, Cornwall, Dorset & Somerset

G ra y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 9G r a y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 9 6160

GUIDED TROTTING ON THE WELSHDEE, SEVERN, ANNAN, TEVIOTand other rivers by arrangement

with George AshtonOne to one or two person share

Tackle & bait providedFull day or half day tuition

Advice on tackle, rigs & tactics

Tel: 0151 548 5741 Email: [email protected]


There is no separate Booking Form again this year. You can now book on-line, or pleasephotocopy or scan this page if you do not wish to cut your copy of “Grayling”

�

64 G ra y l i n g – S p r i n g / S umme r 2 0 1 9

Please use this page for your own notes if you are not detaching the Booking Form

Protect the future of your � shing.

Join the Angling Trust today Call: 0844 77 00 616 www.anglingtrust.net

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The Journal of The Grayling Society · 4 Grayling – Spring/Summer 2019 Grayling – Spring/Summer...

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Transcript of The Journal of The Grayling Society · 4 Grayling – Spring/Summer 2019 Grayling – Spring/Summer...