A two for the price of one article from Nick Thomas this month, first up his grayling rig along with a couple of patterns too.
For me the coming of the colder weather in late autumn means rigging my river reel ready for grayling and my favourite method is to use a long braided leader. Short range nymphing, bugging, Czech nymphing, Polish nymphing, Euro nymphing, whatever you call it, means catching fish pretty much under the rod tip. There are many ways to achieve this, hence all the names for the different variants in approach. In principle it’s very simple. The aim of the exercise is twofold; first get your flies on the bottom of the river where the fish are and second, know when a fish has taken one of them. Many anglers will use some form of indicator and nymphing rigs will commonly have a section of fluorescent braid, coiled monofilament or coloured beads to signal taking fish. These indicators have an inherent shortcoming; they are fixed and optimised for one fishing depth. If you fish shallower or deeper water either the indicator is not on the surface where you want it to be, or your flies are not on the bottom where you want them to be. Fishing effectively means constantly retying your terminal rig to lengthen or shorten the distance from indicator to flies, which is a pain with cold wet hands and a bit of a waste of time on short winter days.
Sliding indicators on a braid leader are quickly adjustable to different water depths to allow you to adjust the height of your rod tip as you track each run of your nymphs down the current keeping them in the taking zone. You are now fishing with not one but two methods of detecting takes; tactile signals through the braid and visual signals from the indicators. This makes it very difficult for a fish to take one of your flies without you knowing about it; if the tapping of the point fly stops, or the indicators dip, strike. If the tapping stops a fish has lifted one of your flies, if the indicator stops or dips a fish has taken one of the flies down. Simple. Here’s how to make your own braid leader for hassle free winter fishing.
Leader Materials & Assembly
Airflo micro poly 20lb fly line backing
Drennan super specialist 15lb micro braid
Sanger Specitech long multicolour float stops
Leader ring 2mm
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Cut a 20 feet length of 20lb braid and tie a perfection loop in one end. You can splice a loop with a sewing needle if you want, but since this junction won’t ever come off the reel unless you hook something huge, it’s not really necessary. Trim the tag end close and secure the knot with a dab of superglue.
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Tie an overhand knot in the other end of the 20lb braid and thread through one end of a six foot length of 15lb braid. Tie a 6 turn Uni/Grinner knot in the 15lb braid around the 20lb braid. Tighten the overhand knot and then slowly tighten the Uni knot while pulling on both ends of the 15lb braid until the knot snugs up against the end of the 20lb braid. Trim off both tag ends as closely as possible and secure the knotted junction with a dab of superglue.
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Thread a few inches of the end of the 15lb braid through one of the loops of mono carrying the float stops and fold back the end. Slide a float stop up the doubled braid until the end of the braid comes free. Repeat with a further 2 or 3 stops of different colours and then slide all of the stops up the braid.
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Tie a leader ring to the end of the 15lb braid with a 6 turn Uni knot, trim the tag end and lock the knot with a dab of superglue.
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Attach the leader to your fly line with a loop to loop connection and wind on most of the leader onto your reel. Now put a thin rubber band (or a loop of flexifloss or any other stretchy material) through the leader ring and loop it over the reel foot. This prevents you having to fish around for the end of the leader when rigging up on the bank and the risk of crossing coils on the reel. Keep the rubber band on while you rig the rod – it’s much easier than trying to thread the thin braid through the rod rings with cold fingers.
On the bank tie on a two or three fly rig to the tippet ring. I use two flies on 5lb fluorocarbon about 18 inches apart with a total length of four feet to the tippet ring and carry a number of pre-tied rigs wrapped on circular foam keepers in my sling pack. This set up allows me to keep the point fly on the bottom and the indicators on the surface as shown in the diagram above over a useful range of water depths for winter grayling.
Some people prefer lighter 3lb or 4lb nylon or fluorocarbon for the terminal rig. Thinner tippet does have the advantage of less water resistance and hence slightly faster sinking but you’ll lose more flies on the bottom. In my experience 5lb is strong enough to pull free nymphs that catch in weed or small branches on the bottom and sinks fast enough for me. You’ll still lose the odd fly when the bead on the point fly jams tight between large rocks, but most temporary snags occur when the fly slips between pebbles and can be freed by changing the angle of pull of the rod tip.
For the purposes of the next bit we’ll assume you are right handed and fishing a river flowing from left to right as you face outwards. If you are left handed or the river is flowing the other way the same actions apply in mirrored form; you either start with your rod hand out to one side or across your body and move your arm to the other side as you start fishing.
To start fishing stand facing the far bank and pull out a foot or so of the orange braid beyond the rod tip, trap the braid between the index and second finger of your rod hand and then flick the rig downstream allowing the current to straighten everything out with your rod pointing downstream (1 on diagram above). Now keeping the rod tip low make a gentle striking action towards the near bank (2) followed by an up and over lobbing movement of the rod up and across your body to propel the rig upstream (3). You’re aiming to land the nymphs sufficiently far upstream to allow them to sink to the bottom and then fish through in front of you for the longest possible distance. Move the rod around adjusting the height of the rod tip until you can feel the tapping of the point fly on the river bed through the taught braid (4). Take note of where the sliding indicators are in relation to the river surface and continue to track the nymphs with the rod tip. Keep the braid taught by slightly leading the nymphs (5). Don’t pull them faster than the flow but don’t go too slow and allow the braid to get in front of the rod tip. As they move further downstream (6) the pressure of the current on the line will begin to lift the nymphs, as this happens drop the rod tip to allow more line to feed downstream until the rod is pointing downstream with the flies streaming in the flow. You are now back where you started and the process can be repeated. Adjust the indicators up or down to suit the depth and make another cast. This second cast can be to the same place as the first or to a point slightly further out into the flow; a series of successive casts is then used to cover the water in front of you in a series of parallel tracks from close under your feet to further out.
If your first exploratory cast hangs up constantly you need a lighter fly on the point and conversely if you can’t feel the point fly tickling the bottom you need a heavier one. Sometimes you’ll need to change more than one fly to get everything fishing right; that’s when having some different pre-tied rigs with different weight combinations ready on foam holders is a good plan.
If the tapping of the point fly stops or if the indicators show any unusual behaviour lift the rod – don’t strike. Remember the whole point of the braid rig is to minimise stretch to allow you to sense everything that’s happening under the water in front of you. Fishing with a long soft rod (I use a 10 foot 3wt) will absorb a certain amount of shock, but you can overdo it. So a gentle lift will connect with a taking fish, and if it’s not a fish you can drop the rod tip and let the nymphs carry on trundling downstream until there is one. Always remember to make a gentle strike at the end of the run before lobbing the flies back upstream; quite often a fish will take as the flies rise in the current and you’ll miss it otherwise. Also it’s a good idea to occasionally to jig the flies up and down as the travel down in the current, again don’t go mad, just a slight raise and lower of the rod tip as you track it round may stimulate a fish to take. Once you covered all the available water from one position take a few steps up or downstream and repeat the process. If you hook a grayling stay put once you’ve released it; they shoal up in winter and if you get one there will probably be others in the same spot.
If you’ve made up a braid leader and need some flies to tie on the end, here a couple of my favourite patterns.
Peeping caddis
The world probably doesn’t need another peeping caddis variant, but if you haven’t got any in your box or need to restock, this is a very effective pattern for tickling the bottom. It has the benefit of being quick and cheap to tie so losing the odd one or two jammed in rocks won’t cause too much distress.
Hook Fulling Mill 35045 Jig Force Barbless size 10-12
Thread Uni 8/0 brown
Bead Slotted tungsten 3-4mm
Head Polyester embroidery yarn, fluorescent green
Legs Veniards micro rubber striped legs tan and black
Body Brown organza ribbon
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Thread on the bead, run on the thread and take down to the bend in touching turns.
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Cut a 5cm length of yarn, burn the end in a flame to form a head and tie in along the top of the shank with the head projecting over the bend.
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Catch in three strands of rubber legs at their mid points on one side of the hook with a couple of turns of thread. Fold back the legs and tie down back along the shank to the bend with three legs on each side. Trim legs to length.
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Cut a 5mm strip from a 10 cm length of stripped organza ribbon (see ESF #33), tie in at the bend and bind down the tag along the shank forming a smooth body.
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Wind the organza forward in touching turns to the bead, trim off the excess and whip finish.
Candy Stripe OJO
Pink is always the obvious choice for one fly on any grayling leader in the winter, particularly if there’s a bit of colour in the water. I’ll be honest and say that you can tie a much simpler version of this fly, omitting the tail and just winding a body of bright pink organza up to the bead, which will catch you lots of fish. However I like the more subtle tone created by weaving the two strands while winding and I like to put a bit of effort into my flies. A well tied and proportioned fly is something that lends confidence and has the ‘finger factor’; that pause in your index finger as you scan down the rows of flies in your box looking for the right fly to tie on at the start of the day. Something that you’ve put a bit of time and effort into tying seems to me a much more suitable thing to fish with confidence than a quick lash up. If you want a quick effective grayling fly, and I use the latter term loosely, then stick a heavy bead on a hook and whip on a strand of that horrible pink squirmy stuff behind it. I tried it once, to my shame. It works but I wasn’t at all happy doing it and cut it off my leader as soon as it was time to shift to another pool. I absolutely was not going to walk along the bank with a big pink worm thing bouncing and flopping about on the end of a dropper.
Hook Fulling Mill 35045 Jig Force Barbless size 12-14
Thread Uni 8/0 white
Bead Slotted tungsten 2-3mm, metallic pink
Tail Fluorescent pink organza fibres
Body Fluorescent pink and pale pink organza ribbon
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Thread on the bead, run on the thread and take down to the bend in touching turns and then back to the bead in open turns.
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Cut a 3mm strip from the edge of a 10cm length of fluorescent organza ribbon and strip out the long fibres.
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Fold the fibres around the thread and tie back down along the shank. Trim the tails to length.
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Cut a second similarly sized strip from pale pink organza ribbon and tie in both lengths of stripped ribbon at the bend.
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Fold the fluorescent pink ribbon forward and take two turns with the pale ribbon over it moving up the shank.
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Pull the pale ribbon forward and take a turn of fluorescent ribbon over it.
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Repeat steps 5 and 6 progressing up the shank to form a striped body.
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Finish with two or three turns of fluorescent pink organza at the head, trim off the excess and whip finish.
You catch some strange things while bouncing a nymph along the river bed. My home stretch of the Taff never ceases to surprise me. Shopping trollies don’t count – there are too many of them and I know where most of them are now. Since the advent of magnetic wheels and coin deposits at Tesco and other upstream emporia the annual migration of these wheeled hazards seems to have halted. I did find a new one this summer however, wading in low water conditions where I’d normally be fishing a deep run for grayling in winter. I’d lost a few flies there in the past, so now I know why. I caught a bra once, which being from a large lady gave a good account of itself in the fast current. I’m not sure of the river etiquette for landing underwear; do you bring it to hand or net it? Release or retain?
One of my strangest hook-ups was early this year fishing behind the local station. Here there is a fast deep run on the far bank accessible by easy deep wading over gravel and small pebbles. It was late in the day and the light was going from the sky when my point nymph stopped ticking along over the stones and the leader pulled taught in the current. I bounced the rod tip around a few times but the line was stuck fast. I pointed the rod, grabbed the braid and pulled expecting to lose my fly rig. The line came free and then tightened up as something on the end swung round in the current. I raised the rod thinking I’d hooked some old weed or a rotted tree branch and slowly wound in. Peering through the gloom at the object swinging towards me wagging from side to side in the flow I felt a chill that was nothing to do with the cold water running past my waist. Looking back at me were the empty eye sockets of a huge dog skull. The point fly was firmly lodged in the nasal cavity proffering me a full face view as this macabre piece of urban river detritus surfaced from the ink dark water. Now this ex-Fido was no Chihuahua or Jack Russell; this had been a big beast with some seriously large teeth. It had obviously, and fortunately for me, been in the river for a long time, polished clean and stained dark by the water. I detached it from the fly and slipped it back into the flow wondering what fate had brought it to this end. I packed up and went home then. Being so strongly reminded of mortality is not good for you standing in deep flowing water in the near dark.
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design, tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.