Chris McCully

Yorkshire grayling 1: The Swale and elsewhere

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 14:35

Over the last week I've been grayling fishing in the county of my birth, Yorkshire. Our travels took us to the Swale, the Yore and then to the river Aire, near to which I was born and brought up. We had a splendid three days, and I fished among great company (and with great anglers).

I love grayling fishing. It's among the most technically demanding of the fishing I do each year - small flies, light points, a delicate hand and angling intelligence are needed to catch grayling consistently - and naturally, there are times when I struggle. Then again, occasional successes, like the grayling pictured, make up for the sometimes-dank days when the year itself seems tired. And one also, in this fag-end of the year, can experience days of flaming amber and low autumn sunlight when the grayling are feeding at the surface to the last of the year's hatches of upwinged flies and small sedges. Catching grayling at those times on tiny dry flies is among the loveliest of all fly-fishing experiences.

Yorkshire grayling 2: Angling in the falling leaf

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 14:31

A cliche of a photograph, perhaps - a grayling among fallen leaves.  This is a typically slim and pristine Swale fish of around 1lb.  Fly was a dry Griffiths' Gnat (size 18).  Angler: Chris McCully.

Yorkshire grayling 3: Three Yorkshiremen and a Manchester United supporter

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 14:19

From left to right: Steve Rhodes, chairman of the Grayling Society; Rod Calbrade (editor of the Grayling Society Journal and alas, a Manchester United supporter); John Roberts, author of (among other books) The Grayling Angler (1982) and The New Illustrated Dictionary of Trout Flies (1986); and Ade Bristow, Secretary of the Pickering Angling Club and Secretary for the Yorkshire area (Area 9) of the Grayling Society.

Details of the Grayling Society can be found on http://www.graylingsociety.net/index.html. Details of the angling and guiding service offered in Yorkshire and elsewhere by Steve Rhodes can be found on http://www.goflyfishinguk.com/index.php

And not a flat cap in sight.

Yorkshire grayling 4: Walbran's memorial

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 14:12

Francis Maximilian Walbran, who in 1895 published Grayling and How to Catch Them, and who drowned in the Yore in 1909, was one of the foremost grayling fishers of his day (or indeed, of any day). This is a touching detail from his gravestone in Wensleydale: note the fishing rod, pannier, net and the stylised carvings of grayling.

Yorkshire grayling 5: A Yore fish

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 14:04

This is a Yore grayling of around 1½lb.  Slightly portlier than Swale fish, and slightly darker in colour, Yore grayling are in some ways archetypal Dales fish.  This one took Pritt's dressing of a Dark Watchet, size 16 - a classic Yorkshire wet-fly, and particularly useful in spring and autumn when Iron Blues are about.

Yorkshire grayling 6: On the Yore

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 14:02

Autumnal shot of grayling fishing on the Yore.  The angler is that formidable grayling fisher and author, John Roberts.

Yorkshire grayling 7: On the Aire

Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 13:58

This is the river Aire above Skipton. Stocks of grayling appear to be improving in the length of the river running from Gargrave downstream, and grayling are regularly found at Cononley, Steeton and Keighley.  Certainly, the river above Skipton is an absolute delight.  Angler: Steve Rhodes.