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Grayling

Fantastic fish sir ! But doesn't count due to being caught in shirt-sleeves :D;)
Any chance of some pics of the dace ?
 
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This is the 13oz, still waiting for the 14.5 off of the keepers Camera.
 
Now were talking, you feeling that fire in your belly yet Mr Matthews?
Another cracker well played that man.
 
You can get the same effect by dropping Krill powder into your live maggots. A match fishing pal of mine swears by it and was amazed that I had never tried it for barbel on rivers. The one he uses is SFA 400 by Marukyu. He is quite organised about how he does this, feeding them the powder over several days before a match until they end up with a visible amount of it in their feed sack. The maggots stay live (unlike the dead ones in your link) and therefore should be better for grayling.
 
Will Smith said:
You can get the same effect by dropping Krill powder into your live maggots. A match fishing pal of mine swears by it and was amazed that I had never tried it for barbel on rivers. The one he uses is SFA 400 by Marukyu. He is quite organised about how he does this, feeding them the powder over several days before a match until they end up with a visible amount of it in their feed sack. The maggots stay live (unlike the dead ones in your link) and therefore should be better for grayling.
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I've kept maggots in krill powder and they've not visibly absorbed one bit. However, they did make the fridge honk for weeks, be warned!;):D
MarukyuUK's Channel - YouTube
To do it properly the maggots need to be frozen and that does kill them.
 
I am not at all sure that maggots have to be alive to catch grayling.

Being an old traditionalist keeping the maggots fresh and wriggling was always a top priority (to the extent of sticking the hook bait in my gob to warm up the maggot on very cold days) so I haven't used frozen ones myself, but have heard of match anglers using them too great success and had it pointed out to me that it isn't that likely that a fish stops to closely inspect a maggot bouncing along the bottom of the river.

What do other think?
I may get a couple of pints of these just to try them out.
 
Pete Marshall said:
I am not at all sure that maggots have to be alive to catch grayling.

Being an old traditionalist keeping the maggots fresh and wriggling was always a top priority (to the extent of sticking the hook bait in my gob to warm up the maggot on very cold days) so I haven't used frozen ones myself, but have heard of match anglers using them too great success and had it pointed out to me that it isn't that likely that a fish stops to closely inspect a maggot bouncing along the bottom of the river.

What do other think?
I may get a couple of pints of these just to try them out.
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Pete,
In the conditions that many fish for grayling, I'd think that there's very little wiggle left in live maggots after a dunking. I doubt very much that it matters a toss.
 
fish (grayling / river fish) only have a split second to decide to have it or leave it for another too have .so long as the maggot looks like a maggot and food (although reds are best ,but yellows are good) then its just a choice of have or have not ,

dead maggots (don't have too be frozen ,just fresh) are just another bit of food heading their way .

as far as flavour goes grayling only care if its fresh or not (and doesn't smell/stink of ammonia or rotten),they aint got time to sniff it ,just snatch it or leave it . grayling are essentially midwater eaters rather than bottom scavengers .

dead maggots work on stillwaters because they don't wiggle into the silt or away .and bottom feeders can graze on them (in flowing water they get swept along just like living maggots) .fish do like flavours but like any creature they can go off them as well .thats why it pays to vary your bait choices

try it but the krill flavoured maggots maybe hit or miss or total disaster ,but fresh maggots always score ,if not corn does ,when grayling fishing i stick too the staple foods stuffs red worms ,red maggots ,yellow maggots ,corn and bread .although i don't mind experimenting with flavours or baits but when grayling fishing i just keep it simple .
 
Just a few comments, based on my experience of watching, feeding and fishing for grayling :):
The krilled live maggots I saw had a pink feed sack after being fed the krill for a few days.

I've had maggots go through a 40 minute 30c wash cycle and come out alive and wriggling. Lovely and clean too :p.

In my experience grayling don't just take a moving bait and even in what looks like fast water many many maggots are not swept downstream. Grayling will spend hours on end picking these remaining maggots out of the gravel and when they are feeding like this won't look at a moving bait. If you float fished in this situation you might easily think there were no fish in front of you.

For this reason holding the bait back hard or quivertipping with a tiny but heavily over-weighted Drennan maggot feeder after baitdropping works well and (...watch them in clear water) grayling have plenty of time to inspect the bait in that kind of situation and can easily see and be put off by anything over a size 20 or 22 and a very light hook length.

Grayling have the most amazing eyesight and awareness and will often completely ignore a burst maggot or one which acts differently to others because of the weight of the hook or line as it falls through the river.

If I had the choice between a nice fresh, wriggling, attention grabbing maggot and a dead but smelly one I'd go for the former :).
 
Im going to b having my first real few sessions for grayling this winter, and Im enjoying this thread a lot, and picking up a lot of interesting ideas. Keep it going people! :)
 
Will Smith said:
Just a few comments, based on my experience of watching, feeding and fishing for grayling :):
The krilled live maggots I saw had a pink feed sack after being fed the krill for a few days.

I've had maggots go through a 40 minute 30c wash cycle and come out alive and wriggling. Lovely and clean too :p.

In my experience grayling don't just take a moving bait and even in what looks like fast water many many maggots are not swept downstream. Grayling will spend hours on end picking these remaining maggots out of the gravel and when they are feeding like this won't look at a moving bait. If you float fished in this situation you might easily think there were no fish in front of you.

For this reason holding the bait back hard or quivertipping with a tiny but heavily over-weighted Drennan maggot feeder after baitdropping works well and (...watch them in clear water) grayling have plenty of time to inspect the bait in that kind of situation and can easily see and be put off by anything over a size 20 or 22 and a very light hook length.

Grayling have the most amazing eyesight and awareness and will often completely ignore a burst maggot or one which acts differently to others because of the weight of the hook or line as it falls through the river.

If I had the choice between a nice fresh, wriggling, attention grabbing maggot and a dead but smelly one I'd go for the former :).
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This does fit with my own observations and experiences. I have often taken smaller fish in mid water, whilst larger fish are feeding under them on the bottom. Tempted in these conditions to start using feeders and pinning the baits to the bottom or switching to a fly rod with a nymph, but I prefer to float fish whenever possible. After spending most of the summer ledgering for barbel it is just so nice to be float fishing, using heavy floats to get the bait down quickly and then holding back hard to slow the bait right down. Usually results in the larger fish in the shoal.

One of the other problems I have these days is older eyes and colder hands makes tying on smaller hooks ever more difficult, so I use hooks to nylon to save having to go through the ordeal of tying my own. Sacrilege, but age gets to us all! I have yet to find a brand of totally reliable hooks to nylon, everything I have tried has had a least a few poorly attached hooks or dodgy line on the cards. Last season I had a couple of break off's on the strike, this may have been caused by over enthusiasm or using to stiff a rod, but obviously prefer to blame the tackle;), so suggestions for the best and most reliable brand of hooks to nylon for a range of small hooks would be appreciated.
 
By the way Will, I nearly always riddle my maggots and replace the bran, if any has been added, with saw dust; but hadn't considered sticking them in the washing machine. How does the wife take to that?:)
 
On the stretch of river I grayling fish, feeder fishing is not allowed. In fact I'm lucky that they let me trot there even. One thing that I have often found here is that the grayling are not out in the main flow but are positioning themselves closer in in somewhat slacker water. Here, I'm sure, all the maggots are settling on the bed and to get the bites I have usually had to fish over depth and hold back hard on each trot so that the hookbait is teased along the bottom.
 
I've often found that slacks produce some very big grayling and not just in higher water conditions. The bigger fish seem to like these areas.
 
Decided to try a bit of this grayling fishing lark on a free stretch of my local river Tees. The river was up, but I noticed a crease between fast and slow water almost at my bank, and flicked a swimfeeder out. Caught a few small grayling, giving confident, unmissable bites. Great fun, and thanks for this thread for inspiring that. (i love the tear shaped eyes as well).

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James, is that just downstream from the George Hotel? Unfortunately the only grayling I have caught to date was when maggot fishing on a barbel feeder rod so the fight was a bit one sided, need to get out and get one trotting.
 
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