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Some thoughts on fishing for grayling

Our October 2002 contribution from Terry Lawton

Terry Lawton has caught grayling on previous expeditions to Sweden but his latest visit, to Tjuonajokk in Swedish Lapland, was his first attempt at fishing for them seriously. He discovered that they are very sporting fish and can - at times - be very obliging at any time of the day or night. But not always!

Although I have caught grayling on previous expeditions to Sweden, this year, during a few days at Tjuonajokk, was the first time that I have fished for them seriously. Although the grayling's reputation is improving in the UK, it is still not held in the same high regard as it is in almost any other country where they are to be found. Why this should be I do not know because they are a really sporting fish and will take a fly all through the day and night.

A good-size grayling, caught in a fast-flowing rapid on an Arctic river will give you a very good fight, particularly when it is helped by getting its enormous dorsal fin across the current.

A year or two ago, further south in Sweden but still in the north, I was told that if you want to catch trout use a big, bushy fly. If you want to catch grayling, then use a goldhead. Although that advice may be a bit simplistic, grayling do like gold and copperhead nymphs, as well as tiny black midges as I was to discover at Tjuonajokk.

The tyro grayling fisherman needs to know that grayling are not trout. They rise differently and do not stay on station like trout. Grayling are often to be found in big shoals and you can often see 20 or 30 fish rising at the same time. They don't seem to frightened as easily as trout and you can can catch them very close to you: that's partly why Czech nymphing - using a very short line - is so effective.

Kaitum river at Tjuonajokk

Like any fish, grayling like well-oxygenated water. This means that fast water, rapids at the tails of pools and similar areas are the best places to start fishing. Fishing upstream is to be recommended as if you fish across and down, wet fly style, it is all too easy to miss a gentle pluck from a grayling whereas fishing upstream makes it that much easier to hook fish. It can be a big help to use an indicator, particularly when fishing rough water, as it helps you to see where your fly is.

One of the most important flies in this part of the world is the knott or blackfly, a little midge. The larvae of these tiny little flies live on the rocks and boulders in fast streamy runs which is another reason for fishing these areas of the rapids. When they start growing, around July time, they start to get into the runs below the rapids where they are devoured by grayling, trout and Arctic charr. When the knotts start hatching in August, fishing tiny black dry flies for grayling becomes very challenging.

Because fishing for grayling is different from fishing for trout, coupled with fishing a new river, it takes time - at least it does for me - to start to understand what is going on and how best to catch fish. One session fishing some rapids is a good example. The previous afternoon and evening I had struggled to catch much more than a few small, hungry trout. But the next morning I started fishing upstream with a copper head nymph and started catching grayling. As the day progressed, my new-found expertise (!) was such that I caught fish on consecutive casts. But then it all started to go wrong. Changing flies and trying different areas made no difference. I had stopped catching fish. I was using the wrong fly and the wrong technique. All around the grayling were rising, taking either emerging or emerged knotts. I think probably the former because they ignored even size 22 floating black artificials that looked to be a pretty good match for the tiny little knotts everywhere.

My failure that afternoon was, I am sure, due to lack of experience fishing for grayling and lack of experience of the Kaitum river. If I had had another day fishing the same area in similar conditions, I hope that I would have got on terms with the fish when they appeared to change from feeding on knott larvae to emergers. It is working out these challenges that make fishing new waters so interesting.

Tackle Grayling do not seem to be leader shy so it is not necessary to use fine tippets which is a good thing when you are fishing in fast flows. If you are going to fish Czech style, an eight or nine foot rod will be quite adequate. But for fishing nymphs upstream and dry flies, then a nine foot 6# rod is required. This is not so much because of the size of fish that you are likely to catch but to help you cope with the size of river. At Tjuonajokk the river can be very wide indeed and long casts can be called for. There were places where it was possible to spend an hour or two fishing your way from the bank out into the middle of the river and then turn round and fish your way back again, hardly needing to wade up or downstream. Although the river is very wide and the bottom rocky, the relatively low summer water level mean that wading (assuming that you are properly equipped with felt-soled wading boots and a good wading stick) was easier than some wading that I have experienced in Sweden. I fished all the time with a floating weight forward line but I am sure that there will be times when either an intermediate or sink tip line could be helpful in getting your fly down that bit further, particularly if you don't want to use heavily-weighted flies. A good reel is a big help and the Snowbee XS large arbor that I was field testing proved to be absolutely ideal. The lesson that I learnt is how important it is to keep your eyes open and look and see what is happening and then react to what you see. Don't just carry on fishing the same fly or in the same way. Perhaps we don't always believe - or understand - what our eyes are telling us. I am now looking forward to becoming a more skillful and knowledgeable grayling fisherman over the coming seasons and feel very tempted to have a go in the UK this winter. < To the top of this article

Tjuonajokk is probably Sweden's best known fishing camp and is a veritable paradise for fly fishing for grayling. It is about 75 miles north of the Arctic Circle at a latitude of about 67° Although it is quite a big camp, with 15 individual four bed cabins and a communal cabin, there is no need to worry about the waters being crowded. This is because there is so much water to fish and because you can fish around the clock, when you are fishing others will be asleep and vice versa. The cabins are very roomy and well equipped with limited electricity (provided by photo-voltaic panels and a part-time generator) and gas heating which was not needed. These cabins are first and foremost Swedish. After all, you are staying in Sweden and the camp was established for Scandinavian visitors, rather than building an American-style operation. There is a sauna bath and shower room, shop and a superb restaurant. Apparently top Swedish politicians and leading businessmen often fly up to the restaurant, which is only accessible by helicopter in the summer, for a gourmet meal and then head back south to "civilisation". The service is superb and it is difficult to remember that you are in the middle of nowhere when you are enjoying a gourmet meal. There is a very comfortable lounge area to sit and recover while talking about the day's sport before getting ready for the next onslaught. There was no problem with taking travel rods on any of the flights (SAS internationally). In fact on the return flight from Kiruna, Sweden's most northerly airport, to Stockholm, at least 25 per cent of the passengers had rods with them, mostly two-piece fly or spinning rods as well as some travel rods. You can find out more about all-inclusive fishing holidays at www.deep-forest.co.uk and Tjuonajokk at www.tjuonajokk.se

Terry Lawton is a passionate nymph fisherman who caught his biggest wild brown trout (in the UK) - 4lb 2oz - on a home-tied variant of a goldhead, Sawyer-style pheasant tail nymph.