Friday, November 14, 2014

The Class of '13

We're certainly paying for the dry weather that we had during August and September - it's hardly stopped raining since the trout season finished on 30th September!
One low pressure system after another blowing in off the North Atlantic, along with the associated rises on the Eden system, has certainly curtailed our grayling fishing so far. But, braving the elements and persevering in the bigger winter flows has brought it's rewards on occasions.
 
 
I was thinking it may be a long winter after the excellent trout season in Eden, but the grayling seem to be thriving too. They must have had a good breeding season with high survival rates in 2013, as we seem to have a good number of 10" - 12" (26 - 31cm) fish. We don't have the numbers that we had during the 'population explosion' of the late 90's and early 2000's but there's certainly a healthy stock of fish throughout the river at the moment. Which is good, and a relief for some, who were expressing concerns over the lack of fish last winter. Although, I always thought that it wasn't really possible to draw any conclusions from last winter, as I think some of the fears were based on catches or lack of them and last winter's consistently high waters gave us very few decent fishing days. My clients and I certainly caught plenty of grayling over the final six weeks of the 2013 trout season....
 
In my opinion, the Eden grayling population did start to go into decline after the massive floods in 2005 and there seemed to be a steady decrease in numbers up until 2011, especially on middle Eden. Things were looking a bit more positive in the winter of 2012 when my catch rate went up, the autumn of 2013 also produced some good catches and with this apparent surge in numbers this year, let's hope that we continue on this positive track in the seasons to come....


John was the first 'Eden Angler' client  to come in search of grayling this winter  - the conditions weren't ideal for his day in Eden but he did manage to get into a few.
 
 
Fish fell mainly to nymphs through October and early November. But the unseasonably mild weather produced hatches of Pale Wateries, Large Dark Olives and midge on some days. A quick change to a team of spiders or dries occasionally produced the goods.
 
David has become a regular (and successful) trout hunter in Eden and had his first go at our grayling in October. After an unsettled week the river was still running a touch high but he did well to get into a few fish on his team of bugs.

The Class of  '13 are in great condition and fight like little tigers

Ray was visiting the UK from Australia. He had two days trout fishing with me last year and stopped off for another taste of Eden. Although he found our weather pretty cold compared to what he's used to back home in 'Oz' he stuck at it and did well to acquaint himself with a few of our Eden grayling.
 
So, as far as trout and grayling are concerned, Eden seems to be in a good place at the moment.... I've often been asked about trips abroad and I'd be a liar if I said I wouldn't be interested, but when you live, and guide, and fish in Eden, why would you want to go anywhere else? I often think that for me, it's a case of 'No passport required'
 
Now that we've gone from British Summer time (BST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and our daylight hours are less, I've decided to Introduce a 'Winter Rate' for guided fishing and tuition - check it out at 'Grayling fishing in Eden' 


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