Fishing in November on 2 rivers yields beautiful grayling

After a great salmon fishing trip to the River Tweed, my focus switched to grayling fishing in November on the Welsh Dee and a fishing trip to the River Eden.

On my way home from Scotland, I stopped for a couple of hours of grayling fishing on the River Eden near Carlisle.

Grayling fishing on the River Eden 11^th Nov

After the heavy rain at the start of November, the river had cleared and dropped to 0.8m (Great Corby gauge), 0.4 m above its summer.

It was a cold breezy day, and I didn’t see any flies hatching. So I set up my 11ft 3wt Vision Nymphmaniac rod to fish a team of nymphs spaced 18″ apart on a 4lb fluorocarbon leader (point: size 14 orange tag PTN with 3.5 mm metallic orange TB; middle: #14 purple collar black PTN with 3.5 mm silver TB; top dropper: size 18 hares ear 1.5 mm copper TB).

The gusty conditions made bit detection difficult, and after missing several takes, I caught a grayling on the orange tag PTN.

Fishing until the light faded produced three more graylings that took the purple collared black PTN on the middle dropper

Pleased with the results of the fishing pitstop, I went back to the car to finish my journey home.

Grayling Fishing in November on the Welsh Dee

The storms at the beginning of November flooded the Welsh Dee. When the weather dried up, it took a week for the river at Llangollen to reach an acceptable level for grayling fishing on the upper beat (0.7m Manley Hall gauge).

Grayling fishing at Llangollen 14^th Nov

My son, George, joined me on this trip to fish the Welsh Dee because he had a day off work and hadn’t been grayling fishing for a while.

It was a frosty start, but the morning sunshine had started to thaw the ground as we walked to the Glide Pool.

Fishing the Glide Pool at Llangollen

George started fishing the head of the riffle above the Glide Pool with a team of wet flies spaced 3ft apart on a 3lb copolymer leader (point: #14 black hopper; middle dropper: #14 pearly butt Waterhen Bloa; top dropper: #14, pearl ribbed March Brown spider).

I hadn’t seen any flies hatching or fish rise. So started fishing with a Vision Nymphmaniac 11ft 3wt rod and a team of nymphs on a 4lbs fluorocarbon leader spaced 18–″ apart (point: size 12 olive nymph with a 4 mm TB; middle dropper: size 14 black PTN 3mm metallic purple TB; top dropper: size 16 hares ear with a 1.5mm silver TB).

Methodically, I fished across and up the glide in search of grayling. Initially, I caught a couple of juvenile grayling on the black PTN. Then, about halfway up the glide, the line darted sideways, and I tightened into a bigger grayling that swirled on the surface. It had taken the hare’s ear nymph on the top dropper.

One of the trailing nymphs snagged the bottom on playing the fish to the net, and I had to scoop the grayling into the net.

When George reached where I was fishing, I moved to let him fish the wet flies through the glide, where he caught two small grayling on the pearl ribbed March Brown spider.

Fishing Dee Farm for Grayling

Next, we walked upriver to Dee Farm, where we saw a grayling rising opposite the fence. George drifted his wet flies over the rising fish but failed to stimulate any interest.

When the grayling ceased rising, he went upriver to fish the fast water at the top of Dee Farm.

While I set up a 9ft 5# rod to fish a dry fly on a 12ft 6X tapper copolymer leader, the grayling started rising again. I couldn’t identify the fly it was feeding on. So, I opted for a #14 CDC olive f-fly, which is a good default pattern for the Welsh Dee.

The first drift over the area where the fish had been rising produced nothing. On the second drift, a grayling swirled and…

BINGO…

The fly disappeared and I tightened into the fish.

After a short struggle, the grayling was safely netted and released.

I didn’t see any more fish rise, so I went upriver to see how George was getting on.

He’d fished the top section of Dee Farm with the wet flies but surprisingly had just caught two couple of small graylings. I had a go with the dry fly but also blanked. Therefore, we moved further upriver to fish the Fridge Pool.

Fishing the Fridge Pool for grayling

The temperature had risen a couple of degrees in the mid-day sunshine, and a few olives fluttered off the river. However, I fished up through the Fridge Pool with the team of nymphs because I hadn’t seen any fish rising.

The fishing was slow, and I’d fished half the pool before I caught a small grayling.

Then, as I reached the deeper top section of the pool, my line stopped, and I lifted into a bigger fish that took off downriver. After a short scrap, I netted a lovely grayling that had taken the black & purple PTN.

Fishing the rest of the pool produced two smaller grayling, both falling for the black & purple PTN.

As the light started to fail, George caught two grayling on a pearl-ribbed March Brown spider and three OOS brown trout on the black hopper. Then, when the temperature dropped, we went home pleased with the days fishing.

Grayling fishing in November on the Glyndwr Preserve – 20^th Nov

I last fished the Glyndwr Preserve beat of the Welsh Dee a couple of months ago, and it was time for another visit now the river had dropped to its summer level (0.5 m Crowen gauge). The cold and windy weather conditions weren’t ideal, but I ventured out for a few hours grayling fishing.

It’s rare to bump into other anglers on this beat, so I was surprised to see a van parked in the middle car park and three anglers fishing downriver of the car park. Therefore, I walked upriver to the long pool above the upper car park that usually holds some good grayling.

I didn’t see any flies hatching, so I set up my 11ft 3# Vision Nymphmaniac rod to fish a team of nymphs space 18″ apart on a 4lb fluorocarbon leader (point: 14# hare’s ear quill nymph with a 3.5mm silver TB; middle dropper: 14# orange 3mm TB quill nymph; top dropper: 18# hares ear nymph 1.5 mm TB).

Starting halfway up the pool, I fished the water on the lefthand side of the main flow, which produced several graylings (15 – 20 cm) that took the quill nymphs on the point middle dropper.

At the top of the pool, I waded out and fished down the righthand side of the main channel. After landing two small graylings, I hooked into a bigger fish that…

stripped line off the reel as it darted downriver.

Carefully, I gained the upper hand and netted a beautiful grayling that had taken the hare’s ear nymph on the top dropper.

I fished the remainder of the pool until it was time to go home and caught several additional grayling.

Grayling fishing at Llangollen 24^th Nov

Heavy rain was forecast for the end of November. So, with the Welsh Dee at its summer level (0.47m Manley Hall gauge), I squeezed in a fishing trip before it became unfishable.

Fishing the Top Pool for grayling was my focus for the afternoon because it had been over a month since I’d been there.

Usually, fishing the fast water above the large tree on the far bank produces grayling. Therefore, I began above the tree with a team of nymphs spaced 18″ apart on a 4 lbs fluorocarbon leader (point: size 12 orange tag PTN with 4 mm metallic orange TB; middle: #12 purple collar black PTN with 3.5 mm silver TB; top dropper: size 18 hares ear 1.5 mm copper TB).

As I began fishing, a large salmon jumped in the main channel opposite the large tree on the far bank, which was a pleasure to see because I haven’t seen many Welsh Dee salmon this year.

Surprisingly, I only caught one grayling on the hare’s ears nymph while fishing to the head of the pool. Therefore, I switched to fishing a team of wet flies spaced 3ft apart on 3lbs copolymer (point: size 12, Grouse & blue Bling spider; middle dropper: size 14, black hopper; top dropper: size 14, pearly butt waterhen Bloa).

Oddly, I didn’t have any takes while fishing back to the large tree with the wet flies.

Fortunately, fishing the slower water below the tree produced a solid take, and my rod bent around into a large fish that stripped line from the reel. Carefully, I got things under control and netted a beautiful grayling that had taken the black hopper.

The next three casts resulted in…

BANG, BANG, BANG...

Three grayling were caught on the black hopper.

Fishing the rest of the pool produced several smaller graylings that mainly fell for the Waterhen Bloa. All the grayling were sheltering in the slower water, below where the salmon had jumped earlier.

Fishing in November summary

After the floods at the beginning of the month, I had some fruitful grayling fishing trips to Welsh Dee and River Eden. Short-line nymphing techniques produced the best catches when fly hatches were absent.

Overall, I have had a great time grayling fishing in November, and I hope December brings me more grayling success on the Welsh Dee.