Nice But Nuisance Grayling

 Thursday started a bit chilly but came out bright and sunny. A typical Autumn day really. While bright and sunny is rather nice for a spot of River Fly Monitoring it isn't really great for trout fishing. No shortage of Baetis and Gammerus. A surprise Stonefly nymph was found. A first for the beck.

Site 3 19 Sept 2024, 10 am	Count	ARMI   2 Bullheads
Cased Caddis	25	2
Caseless Caddis	2	1
Baetis	600	3
Stonefly	1	1
Blue Winged Olive	1	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	500	3
Trigger level = 6	ARMI score total =	11

Site 4  11:00 am	Count	ARMI   Bloodworm
Cased Caddis	8	1
Caseless Caddis	9	1
Baetis	105	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	5	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	120	3
Trigger level = 7	ARMI score total =	9

After lunch we participated in a spot of angling. I had a wander upstream while the others had a wander downstream. As expected it was tough going in the bright sunshine. It was nice to see the pods of grayling up and down the length. These though would become a nuisance later.

 

A the only fish rising were the little grayling I avoided dry flies a stuck with nymphs drifting them next to the weed beds euro style. The only tout I saw were escapee rainbows. Thy did a great job of ignoring my offerings most of the time. When they did show interest a grayling would usually dive in before them. I was interesting watching the grayling's reaction to the small nymphs. The silver bead one was generally ignored. They seemed to prefer the copper bead, along with the killer bug and a black spider.

 I took several of the little grayling despite me trying to avoid them. Apart from one, for a photo, the rest were shaken from the barbless hook in the water. The others had given up earlier than me and moved on to a more productive water. I did do a spot of balsam bashing though. A pleasant day by a beck even so.