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Grayling

Back down to earth on a regular haunt today. Eighteen grayling and two dace. I'd be lucky if any of the grayling exceeded 1lb. However. it was a nice day, it's due to snow, getting colder and I had leftover bait to use. It was an enjoyable couple of hours.
 
Almost embarrassed to post after Mr Jones’ heroics, but I braved the cold for a few hours this morning on the Wharfe. Enjoyed good sport for 13 grayling and one brown trout. Nothing big, but nice fishing all the same 😊

This was the second biggest…

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I went to an old haunt at the weekend that I haven’t fished in over 25 years. My god it’s changed and the stamp of fish has changed too. We used to catch some belters there at secondary school.
Future is looking bright though for it.
Me n my step dad shared a rod and took turns.
Managed a mixed bag of 44 inc small grayling chublets and trout. Nothing of any size but constant sport. I just hope they get opportunity to grow bigger like they used to be all those years ago.
Grayling seemed to be mostly 8-12oz
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Richard,
I've been waiting since 1988 to see a fish exceeding 2lb on the local rivers and becks. The best I managed in all that time was five or six years ago. A fish of 1lb 15oz from a beck that has since suffered a catastrophic pollution event.
 
Chris Jones said:
Richard,
I've been waiting since 1988 to see a fish exceeding 2lb on the local rivers and becks. The best I managed in all that time was five or six years ago. A fish of 1lb 15oz from a beck that has since suffered a catastrophic pollution event.
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Myself and my fishing pal fished that every weekend in the 90’s when we were at secondry school and we caught an odd one or 2 to over 2lb in there. One particular capture below the black pipe was extremely spectacular but unfortunately wasn’t caught trotting a float as it was the monster chub we were after on bread at the time.

There were 1 or 2 big grayling in there with trout to over 4lb chub to 5lb plus perch to 3lb and the pike were well into double.

It was polluted afew times and every occasion took years to recover. I’m guessing from the stamp of fish today, it’s just starting to pick up again.

I never had fish to the same size out the swale which was odd as it runs straight into it
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Myself and my fishing pal fished that every weekend in the 90’s when we were at secondry school and we caught an odd one or 2 to over 2lb in there. One particular capture below the black pipe was extremely spectacular but unfortunately wasn’t caught trotting a float as it was the monster chub we were after on bread at the time.

There were 1 or 2 big grayling in there with trout to over 4lb chub to 5lb plus perch to 3lb and the pike were well into double.

It was polluted afew times and every occasion took years to recover. I’m guessing from the stamp of fish today, it’s just starting to pick up again.

I never had fish to the same size out the swale which was odd as it runs straight into it
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I feel fairly sure that the Wharfe has the potential to produce some really nice fish, but not if Y******** Water keep screwing it over with sewage :mad:
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I never had fish to the same size out the swale which was odd as it runs straight into it
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The two good sized becks that join the Swale from the Dales side have always seemed to produce bigger grayling than the main river. I've seen no bigger than 1lb 12oz for years from the Swale. However, it sometimes seems like every man and his dog has caught a 2lb fish fairly recently.

The place I suspect you are fishing certainly did produce fish in excess of 2lb back in the day. I never got to fish it until it was too late. When I did, I did manage to weigh a few decent ones, but not one of 2lb or more.
 
Chris Jones said:
The two good sized becks that join the Swale from the Dales side have always seemed to produce bigger grayling than the main river. I've seen no bigger than 1lb 12oz for years from the Swale. However, it sometimes seems like every man and his dog has caught a 2lb fish fairly recently.

The place I suspect you are fishing certainly did produce fish in excess of 2lb back in the day. I never got to fish it until it was too late. When I did, I did manage to weigh a few decent ones, but not one of 2lb or more.
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Unfortunately I never managed much in the way of swale grayling above a pound and that wasn’t through not trying either but it just never really happened for me.

Same with the barbel, I fished it with friends for years and was the only one never to get a double out of it.
I was always the least successful angler on the river out of our school group and boy did they let me know about it 😂

Regarding the beck I was fishing that weekly from the early 90’s right up till I left school it was one of my most favorite memorable places to fish. I put more time into that place than any other person I know and it was absolutely devastating to see when it was polluted which from memory was more than twice.

We also had permission to fish the next field down from the black pipe/works.
The locals would come to the garden fences with hot chocolate and cakes and stuff for us Great times and going back 25 years later bought up some memories.

I hardly ever saw other anglers there it was like having the most amazing fishing sport all to ourselves. The odd bloke in the harbor but that was rare.
Special times special fish. Wish I still had the photos we took. Some of the grayling and chub were just sensational out of that beck.
 
David Clewer said:
Is that one of your floats Rich? Looks good.👍


Dave
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It is Dave but for me it’s had a tweak.
That takes 2.5g and the tip is also balsa wood which isn’t something I’d offer due to breakages probably happening. It’s a 4 gram body that i machined down to suit a small river with lighter tackle
 
Back to Happy Valley yesterday and found the river in fine fettle . Walked the length , earmarking swims to fish on the return .Settled into a down stream glide and fished it throughout . Grayling from the get go , interspersed with the odd trout . As the light faded I returned to my car well chuffed with my day .
 
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