I was fishing the River Dove recently and while changing the dry-fly of my dry-dropper rig, a grayling took my dropper fly which was dangling between my waders. I have experienced this on a number of previous occasions, mainly with grayling but occasionally with brown trout.
A little later, having waded upstream, I noticed two decent-sized grayling (I estimated between half a pound to a pound) swimming between my boots. This behaviour continued for 20 minutes and, curiously, continued as I moved further upstream. Intrigued, I purposely lowered a small nymph towards the fish and noted how quickly they were able to mouth and then almost immediately eject such an offering. Is this behaviour normal for grayling and what can we learn from this?
Split down the middle
I refer to the letter from Marcus Caudwell (September) on the subject of the varying colours of brown trout and the reasons for such variation.
Forty or 50 years ago, I caught a brown trout of about a pound and a half on a dry-fly on the Masham water of the Ure in North Yorkshire. It gave a good account of itself after taking the fly confidently. While unhooking the fish, I admired the beautiful, typical colouring of its right flank, the dark spots and the butter-yellow belly. The left flank, however, was completely black, and on closer examination I saw th
