The Lady of the stream

Despite having a few great trips recently I haven't increased my species list for a month, if I had chosen to include my foreign species I would have hit 80 by now, but I seemed to be stuck on 74. It was always going to be tricky towards the end and now with the autumn really tightening its grip, several of my target fish have to be considered as missed opportunities. One of the species I really wanted to get this year was the Grayling affectionately known as the Lady of the Stream, a lover of fast water and shallow rivers. The Grayling in my home county of Devon are fairly sparse, and I had a few offers of help to catch one throughout the year, that for one reason or another never materialised. Having researched the species a number of times, including contacting the Grayling Society, who I might add didn't ever respond, I narrowed the likely spots down to a few waters in Somerset. The river I finally decided upon was the River Tone and the sections in particular being the Taunton Angling Association run beats. Like with all my plans they are constantly being re-jigged if I feel that another species offers a better opportunity and as the Grayling is a fish of the autumn it has been pushed back a number of times. On my recent Zander trip, mate Steve Mac and I discussed fishing the Tone to try and get a Grayling, Steve having fished there before, had landed several Grayling. We arranged a date in November and stuck to it, the concern was the river levels but as luck would have it they were just about perfect with a slight bit of colour and good flow. The day arrived and Steve picked me up at 8am which gave us an hour to get to the tackle shop, Taunton Angling, for the day tickets and maggots. The proprietor of this excellent local tackle shop was extremely helpful and took the time to explain the best swim and methods to get a Grayling. Fortunately Steve knew his way around Taunton and to the river, it was only 10 minutes later and we pulled up at the padlocked gate. The shop had given us the code but what they had failed to mention was that there were around 10 different padlocks on the gate, so I had my very own Crystal Maze challenge to undertake. Finally we arrived next to the river and I was surprised to see just how small the river was at this point and how built up it was in the surrounding area, it still had its own type of beauty. We headed off to the swims recommended by the tackle shop and I plonked myself in the first swim under the weir, it really looked prime for the target species and I was excited to get started.

Steve was going to let me have the prime spot while he roved other swims targeting whatever came along, its a great stretch of river for the mobile angler. Having not trotted rivers with stick floats I needed a quick lesson from Steve, he also lent me a few floats and explained the shotting pattern to get the bait down quickly. With all the info digested I started feeding the swim with a steady stream of maggots before doing the first trot down the swim.

Straight away I could see that despite the narrowness the river in front of me had various speeds and depths, with the far side being the quickest water and my margin hardly moving. The first lesson I learned was that when the float entered the slack water it was in the realm of the Minnow and they would quickly grab the double maggot, enjoyable for the first 50 times then a tad annoying.

Steve had dropped in the next swim down and his first run through saw him connected to a feisty fish that looked good fun on the light tackle, of course it had to be the fish I was after, and he netted a stunning Grayling. I wound in and went to have a look, taking a few photos of the fish to remind me what they looked like, I have blurred Steve's face to protect the screamish or easily offended.

Now back in my swim and feeling positive that the Grayling were around I continued with the plan, trot the faster water and avoid the slack section. This was now starting to pay off and the next species I started picking up were Dace, another of the rivers smaller species, although somewhat better than the Minnows.

The Chub would take the bait if the float reached the overgrown tree, and I was really starting to understand how the fish were all positioned in this little weir pool, just the Grayling to find.

The Chub were really on the feed and although they started off around 8oz they were gradually getting bigger with fish approaching 2lb giving a great scrap on the light float rod, the mouth on a Chub is a real bucket.

I now started catching Roach amongst the Chub and it was really wonderful fishing as every run through the swim produced a fish of some type, unfortunately none of which was the fish I needed.

With a few Gudgeon also thrown in I was already up to 5 species and all from a river only 20 foot across and 3 feet deep, I felt like that child angler I once was, and this was one of the most enjoyable days angling I had done for a long time. Sometimes the back to basics style of angling is all that's needed to remind you why you fell in love with the sport and what ignited that passion for angling. Then the float dipped sharply in the Chub zone and a powerful fish shot off downstream, I had no idea what manner of beast it might be but in the flow and on light tackle it took a bit of time to get the fish back to the net. Finally a nice big Brown Trout was safely scooped up, another surprise from this pool, what would be next I wondered.

I had decided to stop feeding the swim with maggots as it may be that the other species were bullying their way to the bait and pushing the Grayling to one side. After a few more Dace the swim definitely went quieter until finally I hooked the fish I was after as a Grayling spun vigoursly just under the surface. This was no monster but instead a dainty example of the handsome species, but did it matter, certainly not, I was delighted and messaged Steve to come back up river to take a quick snap.

With the Grayling landed I could now try for a bigger one and surely I now knew how to get them, of course this was fishing and what actually happened was I managed to lose two stick floats in a row in the trees. I tried for a while on the quivertip but this seemed to pick up a plethora of Chub and lacked the refinement of the trotted float. I had managed to catch a heap of fish plus the species I was desperate to get so I thought I would call it a day, I packed up and went and watched Steve trotting the river with his closed face reel setup.

I was intrigued to have a try having not used one before and this type of reel was perfect for this style of small river trotting, I may need to get one. Steve passed me the rod and I caught a couple of Chub using it, so I am converted for certain situations. Steve informed he had also filled his boots with a variety of fish including some cracking big Roach further down river. Strangely we only had the two Grayling all day but the bailiff explained while checking out tickets that it was still a bit early for them, a few more frosts were needed. That was the end of the day and a massive thanks to Steve Mac for showing me the way regards river trotting and without whose advice I wouldn't of caught that Grayling. Also thanks to Taunton Angling for the advice, we all need to support our small tackle shops they are gold dust to travelling anglers, helping with tickets and advice. I fear that the high street tackle shop is becoming extinct and it will be a sad day when they are all gone.

Saturday night Chris and I decided to start our Conger campaign off with a trip up to the Bristol Channel, plenty of eels coming out at the moment so it seemed a good option. First mistake was to follow Chris's sat nav and he must have it stuck on sight seeing mode as it took us all over somerset, over hills and valleys, past castles, gorges and speed cameras. The up shot was we took over 2hrs to get to the beach and another 30 minutes to hike to the spot, the only thing that made me feel better was the sight of Chris carrying a catering flask of coffee. We dropped our tackle and finally felt the full bitterness of the cutting easterly wind, last week I was sat in 31 degrees and now I was sat in a blast freezer.

We got the gear sorted and I went straight for the big baits, whole Bluey on one rod and joey mackerel on the second, the conditions were tough as the wind created a large bow in the line that the huge boulders quickly rolled across.

It quickly became a tackle graveyard and combined with the greedy crabs was a real struggle to fish, I reeled in for an hour and lay on the beach in the darkness looking up at the amazing natural planetarium. I spotted 5 meteors', 4 Satellite's and one UFO, I also warned Chris that if you ever see a UFO while fishing, never, ever flash your torch at it! A group of 4 Canadian anglers had made that very mistake while camping in the wilds, a UFO flew across the lake they were fishing and they flashed and waved their torches at it, 5 minutes later they were all abducted and given the stereotypical alien probing! Chris just laughed it off and stated, they probably just flashed the wrong car in a car park, I however wont be flashing UFOs, ever! With the tide now flooding and the wind increasing we toyed with the idea of heading home, instead we decided that fortune favours the brave and we would stick it out. I had put out a whole cuttlefish that was finally getting some interest as the rod tip bounced and line slowly pulled from the reel clicking the ratchet loudly. I left it a few minutes to let it develop and when I finally reeled in, the bait was chewed badly and the trace spun into a mess, a sign of a strap conger. Next action was when the sandpaper sharks turned up and we caught a few after they whittled down the baits, its amazing what size bait they will chow down on.

With the time 1am and us being down to our last leads we decided to finally give in, and as good as the previous river trip had been this trip was the polar opposite, absolute pants! Very often when I blank or as in this case almost blank, I can at least say, well it was nice just being there, but not last night. We do have to take the rough with the smooth but in scales of rough that was more like being dragged naked over coral, while systematically whipping yourself with a bunch of brambles. Hopefully our next Conger trip will be a bit better and next Sunday its a day out with the Happy Danglers chasing Cod, or in my case that dastardly spotted ray. Not sure what if any the next species will be, but hopefully a Flounder will be an option in the next few weeks.