The hideous weather continues to cause disruption to not only my guiding but also my personal Grayling fishing, so I was forced to take extreme action.

 

In the past I have dabbled with long trotting for Grayling, a classic way of targeting autumn Grayling that’s particularly effective in high water conditions. Whilst this entails float fishing with a 13ft coarse rod I decided to ‘legitimise’ my attempts by using a traditional centre pin reel and replacing the usual worms with flies.

 

I’ve had some requests from clients who were ‘hot to trot’ so I figured it was time to get organised. This would require some purchases but of course these days, purchases are all investments!

 

The CADAC AGM was Friday night and my new rods and reels arrived on Friday morning. It would have been rude not to have a go even with the river Dee at just below 1 metre in depth, twice its ideal fishable height.

 

I probably had about an hour on the swollen river before the sun started to set and the call of the ‘Chippy’ became too loud. Predictably, there were no fish but there was a chance to experiment with different shotting patterns, rigs and depths in addition to some crisp autumnal fresh air.