Grayling are a game-fish that can be caught throughout the winter. If you want to extend your fly-fishing season have a go!
Grayling can be a fish (Thymallus thymallus) or a butterfly (Hipparchia semele).
The fish - sometimes known as ‘The Lady of the Stream’ – is one of my favourites. When the trout fly-fishing season is over I go off to the River Swale to try to catch them. I know they can be caught more efficiently using a baited hook, but there is something special about fly-fishing, it feels more like ‘hunting’ and gets primitive juices flowing! I always go to the same place (near Catterick, and just below the site of a Roman ‘marching-camp’) because it is so beautiful. There are always Kingfishers and Dippers around, and often Deer will come and have a look at me. I think human beings must become invisible to animals when they don waders and stroll up the middle of a river. Just being there is a large part of the attraction!
The Grayling Society promotes understanding of this fish and encourages fishermen to think of it as a ‘game fish’ (along with salmon and trout), which it surely is! There are now many fly-fishermen who extend their season by going for Grayling in the winter. Here are some flies to try. (And, if you have a fast internet connection and use ‘Firefox’, you might like to take a look at this site for evocative sounds and images.) If that doesn’t get you out there nothing will!
I was introduced to Grayling by a friend who is a bit obsessive about fly-fishing, and to begin with I thought he was ‘over scientific’ - (he is a physicist who looks at the flies he ties with very ‘fishy’eyes!). But he is right Grayling are very fussy, and they also have mysterious abilities. Not only do they seem to know which flies are to be taken and which are to be avoided, they also know who the fisherman is! Using the same tackle and fly, fishing in the same place and using the same techniques, in fact doing everything except actually becoming him, the fish unerringly choose to be caught by Bill rather than me. (I have solved this problem by going on my own now.)
The European butterfly of the same name is not very remarkable, but deserves a mention. It is not yet ‘threatened’, but like many butterflies its range is declining with loss of habitat. If you feel more passionate about it than me you can go to the ‘Wikipedia’ page and expand their article yourself!
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