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Grayling

Chalk stream Joe. Not pictured but have had a 3lb on the nose as well and a 2.14 same day.

I think the top one is 2.8 caught with Pete Reading on another day

Best from upper Wye (BW) is 2.2. Really missing it this year especially trips to theTaff.
 
I will be heading to the Itchen one Friday this month but do fancy somewhere new. As I live in West Oxfordshire I have had a look at the Wye and Usk foundation but don't know where to start and would like to avoid travelling miles not knowing what to expect. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
 
Edward Adcock said:
I will be heading to the Itchen one Friday this month but do fancy somewhere new. As I live in West Oxfordshire I have had a look at the Wye and Usk foundation but don't know where to start and would like to avoid travelling miles not knowing what to expect. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
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Ed. You can get a day ticket to fish at Builth Wells.
 
A friend and I had a good day after the grayling yesterday . When we arrived an icy fog lay over the fields and for the first two hours we suffered constantly with iced rings , even though ,we managed a fish each . Around 11.30 the temp lifted and we were free to run our floats through unhindered , covering has much water as possible we ended the session with 16 fish between us , 8 under 1lb and a further 8 fish to 2lb 5oz . A new p.b for my friend Cliff and a good christening for his new rod . We also christened Andrews floats , well impressed .
 
Edward Adcock said:
I will be heading to the Itchen one Friday this month but do fancy somewhere new. As I live in West Oxfordshire I have had a look at the Wye and Usk foundation but don't know where to start and would like to avoid travelling miles not knowing what to expect. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
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I fished the Lower Itchen Fishery a lot in the past and had some very fine grayling including a 3:05 stunner (almost two decades ago). But a little more recently I became a bit disenchanted with the venue. It has become one of the best mixed fisheries in the south and still holds plenty of grayling but when I'm chasing them I'm not really interested in the chub, roach and barbel!

Fortuitously, just over 6 years ago, I retired and moved back to Dorset. I still regard the Itchen as one of my local rivers and have returned a few times, usually joining a group booking for a social day out. But I now have the Dorset Frome just a few miles up the road. It may have been said on here and certainly on many other sources, Dorchester & District AA have two stretches of the Frome, at Worgret and Wool, available to members from1st November to the last day of February for £55 (adult/annual) or £40 (adult/part year). As a senior old git a ticket covering that grayling "season" costs me £20! An absolute bargain compared to LIF Day Ticket @ £28.50.

And the best bit for me there is only a small population of coarse fish in those two stretches. It's typically grayling or salmon, seatrout or browns (occasionally all 4!). It can be sporadic and cyclical, as are most grayling venues, but I've had quite a number of 2lb+ fish each season including a few 2:12+ stunners. My best from those stretches is 3:07 (2016).
 

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Not sure you can fish just downstream of the bridge? There is another section further downstream a mile or so called or by the burger factory

No waders needed..

I always fish the bank on the section above the bridge on the opposite bank from the town. Parking next to a builders yard in front of the Houses.

There is a 2 ft jump down at the side of the building. Directly opposite that is good area then walk up the top end 1/4 mile and work back.
down.

I " think" that bank is also on the day ticket😇
 
Edward Adcock said:
I will be heading to the Itchen one Friday this month but do fancy somewhere new. As I live in West Oxfordshire I have had a look at the Wye and Usk foundation but don't know where to start and would like to avoid travelling miles not knowing what to expect. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
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If you ever find yourself near Bala in Snowdonia you can buy a day ticket to fish the Welsh Dee. The winter fishing for grayling is fantastic and fly fishing and bait fishing (no maggots) are allowed. I have fished it a couple of times in the last year and have had a fantastic day each time.

Steve
 
If you're in Bala you must get a bite to eat at the famous `Pete's eats` where you will get the biggest postions on Earth.
They do a simple bunk bed sleeping dormitory as well, mostly for walkers & climbers, but I'm sure an angler could sneak in.
 
I made an impromptu visit to the Itchen today. I usually fish it with a group who book the entire fishery so was surprised how small the grayling coarse section is. Only five of us were there and two of those were preoccupied with fishing for roach towards the entrance. I succeeded in keeping my favourite swim alive for three and a half hours during which I extracted 18 grayling. I then roamed around a bit picking off a few here and there. After lunch weed started coming through and the trout appeared en masse. When I hook a trout I just hit and hold and hope it comes off. I was expecting an important phone call at 3pm but hadn't kept track of time and was still fishing when the phone rang. Needless to say the float dipped under as soon as I answered. Within two seconds I knew the fish at the end of the line was not a trout but potentially the largest grayling of the day. Somehow, I managed to put the phone on speaker and prop it on my rucksack while playing and landing what was indeed the largest grayling of the day. If it wasn't a two it was very close to it. Thankfully, it unhooked itself in the net and swam away shortly after. It then started raining so I headed for the car still on the phone and decided to head home before the rush hour began.
 
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Having an afternoon owing from work, I thought I would have a couple of hours on the River Dove targeting the ladies. This turned out to be a red letter day! Fishing the Doveridge area, trotting a float, baited with red maggots, I managed to catch about twenty grayling, topped by my first 2, with this 2lb 3oz beauty.
 
Nice one Carl. I'm most envious of those who can fish for grayling when they want and nearby. My photos of grayling are awful. They never seem to stop wriggling and I certainly can't hold a fish in one hand and a phone in the other. In the photos others have taken of me I am grasping the grayling with both hands and throttling it. After a catastrophe which still haunts me twenty five years later I do my utmost to have them out of the water for as little time as possible and doubt I'll ever weigh a grayling again. I will keep a count during a day's fishing though.
 
Edward Adcock said:
Nice one Carl. I'm most envious of those who can fish for grayling when they want and nearby. My photos of grayling are awful. They never seem to stop wriggling and I certainly can't hold a fish in one hand and a phone in the other. In the photos others have taken of me I am grasping the grayling with both hands and throttling it. After a catastrophe which still haunts me twenty five years later I do my utmost to have them out of the water for as little time as possible and doubt I'll ever weigh a grayling again. I will keep a count during a day's fishing though.
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Hi Edward. They do wriggle a bit. I have found that they are very similar to eels, in the case that the tighter you hold them the more they move. I also would never actively target them in warmer weather, as you only have to look at them and they keel over. Good fish care and having everything to hand and I believe you should be okay this time of year👍
 
Edward Adcock said:
Nice one Carl. I'm most envious of those who can fish for grayling when they want and nearby. My photos of grayling are awful. They never seem to stop wriggling and I certainly can't hold a fish in one hand and a phone in the other. In the photos others have taken of me I am grasping the grayling with both hands and throttling it. After a catastrophe which still haunts me twenty five years later I do my utmost to have them out of the water for as little time as possible and doubt I'll ever weigh a grayling again. I will keep a count during a day's fishing though.
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I've only targetted grayling a few times and I wish someone had told me how delicate their Dorsal fins are. The only time I tried to weigh one, I noticed a split where it had seperated part way down the middle. I've equally been nervous since. It seemed to swim of with gusto, but unsure how much it would have affected it's manoeuvrability.

The lower itchen was great fun, but I only caught a few likely over a lb. I did however land a salmon on a 3lb line last year, my first time there. I'm still amazed the line didn't snap. I've never smiled so much in my life.

I've caught nearly as many on the free stretch in Winchester and a friend of mine caught one there around the 3lb mark, a few months back.
 
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