Poignant Memories and Grayling

7th October 2007 was the day which will be etched into my mind forever, it was the day I lost the only man I loved, the man which I respected the most and the man which I miss so much, my Dad. Gone from our home but not from our hearts.

The 7th October is also the day I officially go out and start my Grayling season proper and this year it was made a bit more special as I decided nothing could be more apt than using the new split cane fly rod in memory of my parents and it never let me down.

I decided to head back up the Dale and got on the river just as the mist was rising off and the sun was breaking through the clouds,  It looked a perfect day for the Grayling.

After almost an hour with the bugs and nothing to show for it, I decided to switch over the a couple of dry flies which always seem to pull Grayling up to the surface and 2 casts later the first was in the net.

There is nothing better than taking a Grayling on the dry fly, always a joy to watch as it comes from nowhere to sip the fly down.









I managed another 7 Grayling from the same pool, nothing of any stature all fingerling's then I got a cracking pull right at the end of the pool which quickly equated to a nice out of season Brown trout.

As the day went on I released a couple of good Grayling at range and landed another out of season Brown trout which was fin perfect and had a tail like a paddle, for its size, 1lbs odd it gave a great account of itself and was safely returned to carry out in business, I will see you next year hopefully.

Well that was the first day of my Grayling season and not a bad day at all, next week the centre-pin & floats will get an outing so now time to sit back and have a Dram to the Auld Yin, Memories.