30 Jan 2021

The lady of the river

by Greg | posted in: Fly Fishing, Grayling | 0

I had good intentions of extending my fishing season into the winter to make up for some of the lost fishing time during the year owing to the spring/summer lockdowns and travel restrictions by exploring a new quarry, the grayling (Thymallus thymallus). The grayling has been on my “to fish for” list for a few years so the time to stop prevaricating and get out and give it go seemed to be upon me. However, before it came to fruition this plan has had to be put on the backburner for now given the lockdown restrictions but thought I would do some research in the interim to get up to speed with their ecology and how to fish for them while we are benched for the winter.

The grayling is a slender fish with a comparatively small head. It is silvery-grey in colour, with a greenish tint and bluish spots in immature fish. Mature fish have a smattering of dark spots on the front upper half of the fish. It has a large dorsal fin, almost like a sail fish, high on its back. The spinnaker like dorsal fin exhibits rows of dark spots, streaks of orange and an orange fringe which also appears on the rest of its fins. They have quite large pear shaped eyes. The mouth is located quite low on the jaw with the top fleshy lip overhanging a lower fleshy lip. The grayling will take flies off of the surface but in order to do so has to attack the fly from a more vertical position given the location of its mouth on the head.

Basic facts

With an adipose fin this is a salmonid and a hard fighting game fish
Known as the lady of the stream given the graceful appearance
They tend to be smaller than trout, typically <1kg but can be up to 2kg in the UK
They are a sign of good water quality
Thymallus derives from the smell that freshly caught Grayling often have, being similar to the scent of wild thyme
their common name (Gray-ling) owes its origins to its silver-grey colouration
They are still active during the colder months
They spawn in the spring so can be targeted along with coarse fish during the winter
They occupy similar habitat to trout but appear to exploit a different niche and as such do not compete overly with the trout for resources
They tend to favour scours in the river bed or sheltered locations under logs and predominantly feed at depth on nymphs and shrimp
Their upper lip overhangs their lower lip placing their mouth more on the underside of their head
They tend to shoal which makes them harder to find but when you do there are several to target

The following videos give you a basic introduction to fishing for the grayling using standard river fly/trout tackle, i.e. without having to go out and spend money on a euro-nymphing setup. Gutted can’t give it a go this spring as the lockdown will continue till Easter it seems and there isn’t a grayling stream anywhere nearby that would allow me to fish within the lockdown rules. Perhaps this autumn will bring new opportunities to fish for the grayling.

The articles below come from two important organisations (which you should consider joining if you aren’t already a member) and provide more detailed information on the ecology of the grayling and their conservation: