Fly Fishing for Grayling

Graced with an extravagant dorsal fin and an elegant silvery-blue color, the grayling’s classification as a coarse fish (they spawn at the same time as coarse fish) seems almost slanderous. 

To all practical intents, they are game fish and their season conveniently fills the gap between trout seasons.

While a few self-styled fly fishing ‘purists’ sniff at anything with neither ‘trout’ nor ‘salmon’ in its name, the grayling has become so beloved among the majority that it even has a nickname; ‘the lady of the stream’.

Grayling are concentrated in England and Wales, with smaller numbers found in Scotland. They are predominantly river fish and very fussy when it comes to needing clean, clear water.

While they are known as bottom feeders, they are also prepared to rise to dry flies on occasion, although they can be as particular about what fly they’ll take as they are about water quality.

Which is good news for fly fishers seeking a challenge between trout seasons. Not only must they carefully ‘match the hatch’ with their choice of dry fly but they must also familiarise themselves with the types of insects that hatch over the winter. Something to which the trout-only angler never has to give a second thought…

How to fly fish for grayling

While grayling flourish in alkaline rivers flowing across chalk or limestone, you’ll also find them in neutral rivers like the Tay and the Tweed.

You are more likely to find them over gravel, weed or sand than silt or mud. If there’s a rock on the bottom, you may well find grayling on either side of it, just out of the river’s main current, waiting for food to be brought to them.

Sensitive to temperature, they move into deeper water when winter bites, relocating to more fast-flowing, shallower areas in warmer conditions.

They have excellent eyesight, so if there is anything awkward or unnatural about the way you present your fly to them, they will steer well clear.

And if you fool their eyes and they take your fly, their mouths will assess it in less than a heartbeat. This is not one of those species where you wait for a moment before setting your hook: the instant you feel a take, lift your rod tip sharply to drive the hook home.

If you are fishing deep for grayling, use a team of two or three nymphs suspended beneath a floating indicator. The latter is essential if you are to detect those fast takes.

When they are taking off the top, fish dries flies as far away as you can, landing them as delicately as you can on the water. And don’t be afraid to use small flies. Big grayling will take flies down to size 20.

What are the best flies for grayling?

Grayling dine on aquatic insects but also on small crustaceans and possibly trout eggs. For sub-surface fishing, anything representing bugs or shrimps will give you a fighting chance.

Try a Goldhead Bug or Scud and have a selection of generic nymph patterns to hand, as these are often mistaken for aquatic bugs. Try a Hare’s Ear or Pheasant Tail Nymph. An Egg Fly will be the obvious choice if you want to check whether the grayling are feeding on trout or salmon eggs.

If they are sipping insects off the surface, the Red Tag is a traditional dry fly for grayling, although Spider patterns can also work well, as does the Griffith’s Gnat, Polywinged Midge and Sparkle Dun.

On days when the grayling prefer to take dry flies that are just under the surface rather than sitting on it, you will need some emerger patterns, like the Klinkhammer Special or CDC Emerger.