A Low Blow To Calm A Squirming Grayling

Formerly reviled by trout anglers, the sweet-scented ‘lady of the stream’ makes for a fine sporting challenge, says Edward Barder

- Edward Barder

Fly-fishing for grayling is very much at the hipster end of the angling spectrum at the moment. You’ll need a special beard and an 11ft fly rod rated for a #2 line to join the club, and a degree in engineering to understand the composition of the special leader to which you’ll be attaching your flies.

This style of fishing is known as ‘Euro-nymphing’. It sounds like a Belgian extramarital activity but it’s actually an effective and absorbing way to fish, especially in winter. I love it but before getting into the minutiae of grayling fishing and my lack of a beard, let’s consider the fish.

Often referred to as the ‘lady of the stream’ — a slightly twee name as plenty of them are males — grayling are at their peak in autumn and winter. Compared with the trout, which conforms more to a fishy interpretation of the mathematic golden ratio, the grayling is quite a strange creature — lovely but odd, like the hare, the goat and the Citroën DS.

With their under-slung mouths, turquoise-tinged pectoral fins and outsized dorsal sails, grayling have an almost exotic appearance out of the water. Their Latin name, Thymallus thymallus — so good they named them twice — suggests they smell of thyme but, to my nose, it’s the scent of cucumber that coats my hands when I’ve held one.

Forty years ago, when I started to fly-fish in earnest, the mysterious and beguiling grayling was viewed with suspicion at best and, more often, as vermin. This was especially true in the south, where the chalkstreams teemed with these unwanted, unappreciated fish.