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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Winter Grayling
Winter Grayling
- Thread starter FishingMagic
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geoffmaynard
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...and drag the bottom with the bait wherever possible..
S-Kippy
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Interesting how Ron advocates feeding "little and often" whereas on the last LIF Fish In Monsieur Maidment spanked the pants off me by ladling in maggot like a man possessed. Both approaches will clearly work and its "on the day" I guess. I did OK anyway but I will be so bold as to say I think I would have done even better had I not had the Maidment baiting machine upstream of me. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the fish I had moved up in response to Neil's feeding and that on that particular day they wanted more than I was giving them. As I said in my write up I was brought up on different sorts of rivers to Neil and as a consequence heavy feeding is not my default setting.
geoffmaynard
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Yes very true Skippy. Sometimes handfuls of bait will turn on a swim when the little and often approach does nothing. Problem is, you run out of bait in an hour! 
S-Kippy
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Problem is, you run out of bait in an hour!
Neil doesn't. Goodness knows how much he had with him on the LIF and he frightened the life out of me when we had a day on Throop. I'm not a big maggot user anyway but more went into Brother Neil's swim than I'd used all season !
Jeeez what a miserable looking guy that Sturdy is!
Every photograph looks as if the fish is being held by someone who wished he was somewhere else.
As a for feeding, Im in the little and often brigade, works well enough more often than it doesn't as several 50+ days a season proves.
Filling the place in is okay if you can afford it and are not concerned that the place wont fish well again for a week.
Every photograph looks as if the fish is being held by someone who wished he was somewhere else.
As a for feeding, Im in the little and often brigade, works well enough more often than it doesn't as several 50+ days a season proves.
Filling the place in is okay if you can afford it and are not concerned that the place wont fish well again for a week.
A lot depends on the day, the conditions and what you are fishing for:
A day on the LIF would mean I take between 4 and 6 pints of maggot whereas a similar day on the Avon might only require less than a pint.
Nuisance small fish are easily "fed off" so sometimes a lot of bait can be used doing just that particularly on the Avon in the summer.
As there is no hard and fast rule I prefer to take more rather than less bait and anything left over is pretty much used one way or another.
A day on the LIF would mean I take between 4 and 6 pints of maggot whereas a similar day on the Avon might only require less than a pint.
Nuisance small fish are easily "fed off" so sometimes a lot of bait can be used doing just that particularly on the Avon in the summer.
As there is no hard and fast rule I prefer to take more rather than less bait and anything left over is pretty much used one way or another.
FOUR TO SIX PINTS..
mg:No wonder its dead for days after you and Neil have paid a visit!!!!!!
Keeps the tackle shops happy I suppose.
I'd only use the full amount if the conditions so dictated, so sometimes I would be taking ¾ of that back home with me.
To my mind it is pointless to have to pack up and go home early due to running out of bait.
What isn't used that day will sometimes be used the next day, or frozen to add to groundbait of even fed to the birds in my garden.
Pete, for future refference there is a couple of tackle shops not to far away if you do run short, plus just up the hill on the left of the first traffic lights is a Taccy Extra that does fresh bread, etc.
Not that I wish to deprive our feathered friends of their din dins.
Here Robin Robin....
.
nicepix
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Interesting though is how fly-fishermen bag twenty plus grayling from the same shoal without any feed whatsoever. Granted some may be repeat captures, but then again that would be the case with bait caught fish.
There is a place on the Wharfe where you could catch fish all day just by dead drifting a Hare's Ear nymph or Pheasant Tail nymph, maybe switching to an F Fly around the noon period. No maggits required
There is a place on the Wharfe where you could catch fish all day just by dead drifting a Hare's Ear nymph or Pheasant Tail nymph, maybe switching to an F Fly around the noon period. No maggits required
Neil Maidment
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I've had plenty of fine days with grayling on the Itchen and Test without feeding a single maggot (or caster). It all depends on how I assess the conditions on the day. When I do feed, as was the case at the last Fish-In, I probably used less than 5 pints all day and, as was noted, I walked and fished just about the whole available fishery before finding any quality grayling (in Skippy's swim, so they were fair game as it were! :wh)
I've also fished the LIF on several consecutive days in the past and increasingly had better quality and numbers of grayling from the same swims as the sessions progressed. In such rivers, including the Stour and Avon, any quantity of bait will be distributed over an incredibly large area and disappear in a very, very short period of time.
When chub are my target on the Stour/Avon then, again when conditions are right, I will usually be armed with at least 6pints of red and more likely, a gallon. When the chub are in residence and in the mood they will demolish that lot in very quick time. Stop feeding and you will invariably stop catching. Similarly if you happen to drop into a swim a day or two after someone has fed the chub you will often be in for a very hectic day.
I agree with Rod where the Trent Trotter is concerned, a cracking way of float fishing the shallow areas where the grayling can be in the smallest of depressions. But it can also be fished at decent range, not only down the inside. Just need to keep in reasonable touch with the float.
I've also fished the LIF on several consecutive days in the past and increasingly had better quality and numbers of grayling from the same swims as the sessions progressed. In such rivers, including the Stour and Avon, any quantity of bait will be distributed over an incredibly large area and disappear in a very, very short period of time.
When chub are my target on the Stour/Avon then, again when conditions are right, I will usually be armed with at least 6pints of red and more likely, a gallon. When the chub are in residence and in the mood they will demolish that lot in very quick time. Stop feeding and you will invariably stop catching. Similarly if you happen to drop into a swim a day or two after someone has fed the chub you will often be in for a very hectic day.
I agree with Rod where the Trent Trotter is concerned, a cracking way of float fishing the shallow areas where the grayling can be in the smallest of depressions. But it can also be fished at decent range, not only down the inside. Just need to keep in reasonable touch with the float.
nicepix
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Don't ever consider moving to France Neil. At around 4 cents per maggot you'd bankrupt yourself, that is if they were allowed on the Category 1, i.e. trout and grayling rivers.
Neil you say
"Any quantity of bait will be distributed over an incredibly large area and disappear in a very, very short period of time"
Well Ive fished the river on a Tuesday and been the only angler there, and have had fish cough up live maggots.
Yet no-one had been on the river since Sunday...and I was using bread..
It has been my experience that if its been a 'heavy' weekend the place certainly doesn't fish well for a few days and perhaps explains why many of the regulars usually give it a miss until the end of the week.
I suppose it depends on what we would call a very very short period of time?
"Any quantity of bait will be distributed over an incredibly large area and disappear in a very, very short period of time"
Well Ive fished the river on a Tuesday and been the only angler there, and have had fish cough up live maggots.
Yet no-one had been on the river since Sunday...and I was using bread..
It has been my experience that if its been a 'heavy' weekend the place certainly doesn't fish well for a few days and perhaps explains why many of the regulars usually give it a miss until the end of the week.
I suppose it depends on what we would call a very very short period of time?
S-Kippy
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I think what this shows is that there are no hard & fast rules. On the LIF Fish In Neil read the conditions & the fishes response far better than I did [I was too excited !] and as the fish were "on" his attacking approach proved better on the day than my more cautious one.
I'm very "river rusty" and it did take me a while to twig what was happening but as I said in my write up I had a terrific day anyway and went home a better angler for simply watching how Neil worked his swim. It was one of the most enjoyable day's fishing I've had in ages.
I'm very "river rusty" and it did take me a while to twig what was happening but as I said in my write up I had a terrific day anyway and went home a better angler for simply watching how Neil worked his swim. It was one of the most enjoyable day's fishing I've had in ages.
geoffmaynard
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The first time I fished LIF was well before it became well known. (I probably cocked it all up by organising a fish-in there, word spread and Lyndsey cashed in! Won't be doing that again!) My pal and I had been told it was fly only so we spent all morning fishing with a gold bead nymph on a light rod for just a pair of fish each. Then about midday we rounded a bend and found a guy coarse fishing with a feeder - he'd had about 30 grayling. He told us the facts and sold us a couple of pints of maggots - I had some float rods and pins in the car so we went a'trotting. Result was about 40 fish each in the next two hours
theartist
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For my ignorance i just googled Trent Trotter and got alot of images of a rather hard looking rugby player
nicepix
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For my ignorance i just googled Trent Trotter and got alot of images of a rather hard looking rugby player
If you take a normal Avon float and break the stem off just under the body you'll get something like a Trent Trotter.
Legend has it that legendary float fisherman Billy Lane was fishing a 'National' in the days when they needed twenty buses to convey the contestants to their pegs, when he broke the stem off his float. Not having time to set up a new rig he continued to use the broken float as it was. The Trent Trotter was born.
It is usually fished by having a lead shot fixed above the float and letting that shot drag the bottom so as to slow the float down. This allows you to trot shallow swims at a greater distance than you could conventionally.
theartist
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Thanks Nicepix I did find them in the end and whilst i am unlikely to use one, theres something special about hand made varnished floats I must say.
tryanythingtwice
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Rod, I can't agree with the comments on bread. I have caught thousands of grayling on it over the years, and the occasional trout, a great bait!