Grayling

robertroach · Nov 11, 2015

Here in Dorset we have some grayling fishing available now and lots of nice fish being caught.
They are lovely fish, but I find them hard to deal with. They don't want to stay
still to be unhooked and sometimes in the landing net thrash around so much the hook gets caught in the net and the fish is tethered by the line going through their lip and then getting stuck in the net. Plus the longer you leave them out of the water the more you need to revive them before they can swim off.
I was fishing downstream of two anglers today and a big grayling floated past belly up and dead. It was pretty obvious they didn't revive it after catching it.
Any tips on how to deal with these fish?

seth49 · Nov 11, 2015

Hold them upside down when you handle them, it really quietens them down.
Makes unhooking a lot easier.then turn them over to revive in the water.
Works for most fish as well.

tigger · Nov 11, 2015

You just need to keep them out of the water for as short a period as possible. With the fish still in the water (especially if i'm wading) I often hold the line and slide my disgorger down to the hook and use a quick forward stab to remove the hook and the fish doesn't even leave the water and needs no reviving at all.
If I do pick one up I get a good firm gripp of it before doing so otherwise the chances are the fish will wriggle free and drop out of your grasp. Unless I catch a serious monster of a grayling I don't bother with pic's anymore as they usually always need reviving before being released.

bullet · Nov 11, 2015

I find a slamo style disgorger extremely useful if the fish is not hooked deep in the mouth.just bring the fish in, and hold the line in one hand and slide the disgorger down the line with the other. A quick flick and 8 out of 10 of them are gone.No need to handle.They swim off great.
Your rod is under your arm or on the bank. Still need a normal disgorger if they have swallowed it a bit.

---------- Post added at 12:06 ---------- Previous post was at 11:59 ----------

robertroach said:
Here in Dorset we have some grayling fishing available now and lots of nice fish being caught.
They are lovely fish, but I find them hard to deal with. They don't want to stay
still to be unhooked and sometimes in the landing net thrash around so much the hook gets caught in the net and the fish is tethered by the line going through their lip and then getting stuck in the net. Plus the longer you leave them out of the water the more you need to revive them before they can swim off.
I was fishing downstream of two anglers today and a big grayling floated past belly up and dead. It was pretty obvious they didn't revive it after catching it.
Any tips on how to deal with these fish?

Rob, I hooked a decent grayling a while back, and it came off about 5 yards downstream of me.It then proceeded to float belly up downstream for about 50 yards before it finally came to it senses and righted itself. Those fish may well have recovered later.

sam vimes · Nov 11, 2015

I deal with grayling more often than I want to at times. I catch many hundred, if not thousands, every year. However, I've tried pretty much everything suggested to little discernable difference. Ultimately, all I can suggest is that you learn to deal with them as rapidly as possible. If you are having problems with your net, either change it to one that the hook can't penetrate (rubber nets work) or avoid using one at all where possible.

Grayling

robertroach

Well-known member

seth49

Well-known member

tigger

Banned

bullet

Well-known member

sam vimes

Well-known member