My old buddy Jules was keen to try out his new float rod with some trotting tactics, something he had not done before. So I arranged to take him to the Hampshire Avon to hopefully help him catch his first ever grayling. Of course, as you would expect, Geoff and Kev didn’t want to miss out on a days grayling fishing on the Avon either, so they joined us for the day.
On arrival the river looked a little coloured and up since our last visit. Overall conditions looked good. So after a full English at the local cafe, we headed to the river. It was even colder than yesterday and again looked like it was going to be a windy day. We grabbed the tackle from the car and headed off upstream to find a few likely looking runs.
I helped Jules set-up his tackle and guided him through the basics of using a centrepin. He took to it reasonably well and more importantly enjoyed the experience. After a while, I left him to it, confident that he would soon catch. I opted to fish a run just above him. I waded out and ran the float through a nice 4′ deep run. The double maggot hook bait was soon snaffled up by a fish. It turned out to be a feisty trout and a couple more followed that one. Then the float shot under and this time a really nice grayling was the culprit. It looked about 1lb 8oz+ but I didn’t weigh it as I was wading out in the river. I followed that up with another nice grayling of about 1lb 2oz and then another trout.
Julian hadn’t had much luck so I stayed with him for a while. He was doing all the right things but failed to get a bite. I suggested a move and after a few trots through in this new swim, the float dipped and we had a fish on. It was a beautiful grayling of about 8oz and Jules’ first ever one. He was well chuffed. We carried on fishing for a while. I managed another grayling but we struggled. We decided to move downstream.
Julian's First Grayling
Both Geoff and Kev were struggling on the grayling front too. I think Kev had managed one and nothing but a few trout for Geoff. We left them to it and moved down. I had a few more grayling and then lost a big fish. It may have been a big trout, but who knows? Julian found a couple more grayling a a few trout, so was over the moon with his first experience of trotting, centrepins, the Avon and grayling.
As the day wore on it seemed to get even colder and windier. Kevin found a small shoal of good quality grayling, taking several over a pound. Geoff also found a few. Overall we struggled at what is normally a fairly easy venue. I can only assume the conditions just weren’t quite right for the fish. Virtually all the fish came to maggot and I couldn’t but a bite on corn, which is normally good in coloured water.
The River Angler 
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