Any tips on targeting grayling in a stream that holds trout, without attracting the trout as well?

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You can only fish for so long before you have to throw a stick of dynamite in the river.

Personally i think it can be pretty dificult to avoid out of season trout when going for grayling. You could try going dry only as grayling will rise from the bottom for a tasty meal even in October and November. I like to fish red tags, grayling witch's and griffiths gnats. If nymphing pink tunsten bead heads are my go to flies and seem to appeal to grayling more than they do to trout.

Paul

Particularly at this time of year when Trout are still very active. It does tail off before too long, tho'.

If you keep getting Trout then move from the spot and remember that Trout hug the margins while Grayling tend to go mid stream.

If you can see them, you can identify the difference by the tail. Grayling have an arrow shaped tail and Trout are spade ended.

If they are still taking you are not doing Trout too much harm but shake them off, if you can, without taking them from the water. I drop the rod and let them run into fast water, that usually lets them off.

If Trout are still active a Tungsten Bug will usually get below them fast, down to the Grayling.

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Roy

Good advice from Roy, i often just move.
I think Trout and Grayling often occupy different types of water, you often know a "Grayling pool" just by looking at it.
Sometimes a change of fly helps as well with one species preferring something different to the other.

I think that if you avoid gravel spawning areas, use barbless hooks, and target graying lies (such as a midstream confluence of two currents), leave your guilt at home, and enjoy yourself. If you find yourself catching too many trout, call it a day, and go have yourself a beer. Even during trout season, after I catch 4 or 5 fish, which I release, I call it a day.

Thanks Idris for starting this thread, its answered a question I've been longing to ask. Now I can get out again without any much guilt!

Just enjoy yourself mate. If you can see the fish you can easily tell trout from grayling and you can just avoid them. As long as you fish barbless, handle the fish with care and keep them in the water if you do get in to a trout it shouldn't be a problem.

Rob

This guilt thing has surfaced here as the season winds down. On the surface it appears a no brainer that catching pre spawning and spawning trout could be destructive but do we know this for fact?

I know firsthand that LL Atlantic salmon for example, get lock jaw when it is time to spawn and only take a fly if pestered then turn on after spawning and begin feeding. I am not advocating that we pester fish actively spawning; so if we fish as we would to feeding trout it only stands to reason that the majority of fish active in the spawning process will ignore our flies, no?

In your case you will catch grayling and in mine rainbow trout with the exception of those few brown or brook trout that are either not yet into spawning or have finished the act in which case do we really need to feel guilt for C&R fishing in the cold waters of late season unless we directly pester fish on the redds?

The last 12 days while on vacation I fished intensively in a medium size stream that has wild brown, brook and rainbow trout. Generally I catch brown and brook trout in the spring then rainbow and brook trout make up the bulk of my catch from June on.

Brown trout always seem to elude me in many Vermont streams. I know other Vermont anglers that say the exact same thing!

Anyway, I caught a pile of rainbow, one skinny eleven inch brown and no brook trout though I fished water in which I frequently catch brown and brook trout.
Brook trout are generally actively spawning at this time October 17, with brown trout soon to begin followed by rainbow in the early spring. With the exception of one day I was CZN the entire time. Apparently, the brook and brown trout are not there or uninterested in taking a nymph. I had a companion on two days and he didn't catch brook or brown trout either.

I have asked a few questions here and shared my observations on my area stream.
I am interested in learning what others think and know to be true regarding late season C&R fly fishing.

Thanks!

Bobby

Some excellent advise on this subject - posted on this thread!

As a stream fly angler; and a conservationist, I have noticed that the feeding habits of Wild Brown Trout, begin slowly in April, then increase to voracious and continuous feeding frenzy until late August; and although you will catch trout right up to the end of the season, the number caught will decrease substantially during the last month of the season!

Anyone fishing a small stream or river during the winter months for other species of fish, should just use some common sense; and refrain from wading the spawning areas as much as possible! You may catch the odd trout occasionally up until the end of October, then it's unlikely (but not impossible) to catch a Brown Trout until the following Spring season.

Go easy - and enjoy the winter Grayling fishing.