He told us “Levels were low, and there wasn’t a great deal of flow in many swims, which made things quite restrictive. I’d been fishing a wire-stemmed float shotted with an olivette, as many grayling anglers do, but I hadn’t been very successful. After a brief chat with my good mate Simon Ashton, we reckoned that in the low and clear water, the bulky olivette was possibly bouncing about in the flow and spooking the fish.
So on the next session I opted for a change and decided to shot my float shirt-button-style, with five pairs of No.1s down my mainline approximately six inches apart, followed by a few No.8 dropper shot close to the hook to dot the tip of my float down nicely. This shotting pattern offers a more delicate presentation, and I reckoned it would be less conspicuous in the clear water. In addition, with low levels and a lack of flow, I could get hookbait down to the fish without needing the bulk of an olivette.
The rest of my set-up consisted of a 14ft Drennan Vertex rod, 5lb mainline, a size 18 snap swivel, and a 4lb fluorocarbon hooklink down to a size 16 hook. Maggots were the bait, which I fed very lightly, introducing two or three every few minutes. It took around 20 minutes before I had my first bite and hooked my first fish, which came in the shape of a 2lb 2oz Grayling. I caught a few other smaller ones, then moved to the next swim up, feeding the same way, and managed a new PB of 2lb 10oz which I was made up with!
When bites stopped, I dropped way downstream into an area where there’s a five-foot-deep gulley through which the river flows at a steady pace. Here, I’d run my float a long way downstream, but once it reached the killing zone bites were regular. A string of amazing fish came to the net, with seven over the 2lb mark topped by grayling of 3lb exactly and 3lb 2oz. I was truly buzzing with the results of a session that was my best to date, and one that’ll take some beating.
The change in set-up proved crucial to my success and went to show that having the right rig on the day can make a big difference in how your session pans out. Fishing can be hard, but if you’ve done everything you can to maximise your chances of success, it just comes down to having a bit of luck on your side.”
Well done Jonathan!