I'm having a day out at Bolton Abbey towards the end of October. I don't often fish rivers, mainly still waters, and usually it has been for trout.

I have a 9' 5wt rod with floating line, plenty of dry flies but few weighted nyphs in my fly box.

I plan to try dry cdc's/emergers, which I reckon I can manage, but would like to have a crack at czech nymph style fishing, which is a new ball game to me. I've read up on some basics, but I'm uncertain of some aspects.

What length of leader do I need for czech nymphing, how do I gauage/control the depth the nymph is at, can I use a some shot to take down the unweighted nymphs I have in my fly box, or do I need to buy some weighted nymphs?
If so, which nymphs and who do you recommend to buy them from online?

Any advice or direction is welcome. I'm really looking forward to a different way of fishing.

Thanks,

Courty

__________________
"Quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten."
"The pain of equipment failure lasts longer than the thrill of a bargain."
(from The Book of Tackle Acquisition, chapter 6, Universal Laws).

Hi Corty

I have a season ticket at Bolton Abbey; I am by no means experienced in czech nymphing but here's my tuppenceworth!!

Good sources of flies are Stuart Minnikin Fly Fishing Flies Yorkshire Dales. Spiders Czechs Nymphs & Dry Flies (he also sells ready made up czech nymphing leaders)

or I have used Jan Siman Siman Fly-Fishing Shop, Czech Nymph Products, Czech Nymph Masterclass.

Other sources are available, as they say on the radio!

There is no need to go for the flies marketed as czech nymphs. Ordinary beaded nymphs will work just as well if not better. Using shot is not illegal and would probably work, but as well as being "infra dig" I don't think many of the true masters use it - they use weighted flies, although I am happy to be corrected. You need a heavy nymph to get to the bottom; if it catches all the time its too heavy, if you cant feel it twitching as it rolls along the bottom its too light. The weight needed depends on the speed and depth of the water. Apparently nymphs with pink in are successful for grayling but I haven't seen this myself.

I use a 9' 5wt rod with a floating line as its all I have, and suffices. True afficionados will tell you that a longer lighter rod gives you better control, but for the sake of a few days fishing its not worth splashing out on a 10ft 3 or 4 wt.

Hope you have a successful day!

I don’t fish the Yorkshire rivers for grayling, I stay up here on the NE ones once there’s a nip in the air. However, what goes, in the way of techniques, is the same for all our northern spate rivers, only taking into consideration the differing sizes of the rivers and the tackle required accordingly. There’s a bit on technique for Czech nymphing in this article from a couple of years back. It’s obviously a smallish river up here in the NE, but the principles are the same.

I agree with treetrouter’s comments and he obviously knows the river. I would approach things in a similar way on the Wear, which I would think is about the same size – up here the nymphs that score best are bead head GRHE and PTN.

A couple of additional tips: look for creases in the flow and places where the current runs deep and will drag your flies/nymphs down to the bottom more effectively. You need a floating line because you detect takes by its movement, but in such spots, the end of the fly line will often be pulled down beneath the surface and you’ll need polaroids for this, esp. on a bright day. These, in my experience, are the best spots for grayling, which will stay on or near the bottom of the river. When you hit on a shoal, you can get a take every cast to start with, but after a while of running a set of nymphs through them, they will wise up and stop taking, whether or not you’ve hooked a fish, and its then best to move on.
Tight Lines,

W_n_d

The Lambton Worm: The Definitive Guide to Angling in North East England

The Fishing Archives

I haven't fished Bolton Abbey for grayling for a few years now, but the Strid wood section held more grayling than some of the other reaches when I have fished it before.

It would be worth getting yourself some weighted "point fly" nymphs - but if you only have a limited number/range of weights represented in your fly box (and if they are allowed), using the right sized split shot in the "point fly" position is a reasonable way of doing things.

Leader length should be just less than the rod length and should be made from level monofilament (somewhere around 5lb in breaking strength in a low diameter copolymer is good).

You won't "feel" the vast majority of takes - so you will have to strike at subtle visual indications on the tip of the flyline. The key to this is tracking the flies properly.

Shortened version of a section on czech nymphing from a DVD I made (available for £15 from spidersplus.co.uk or direct from me via paypal on p.gaskell8@googlemail.com) here:

Hi there,

In terms of leader, I use what Stuart Minnikin showed me which is dead easy to make up yourself. Use 4lb line all the way through, and simply have 20" between each of the flies. Overall length should be 7-9 feet, I'd use 9 feet if you're on the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey.

On casting, you want only about half a rod length of fly line out. Most people go wrong here as it seems very short, and feels unnatural at first.

Having a 10' #4 weight rod is ideal (the extra length gives you a bit extra control when you are lobbing your flies out and more scope for searching without lengthening your line) but you can do it with a 9' #5 too.

Advice already given on flies is sound.

If you try it and can't get it to work, worth booking a session with someone like Stuart Minnikin. I really enjoyed it when I did and, importantly, it gave me confidence using the method.

Hope that helps.


Cheers
Stuart

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See my Yorkshire fishing blog at www.riverwharfe.co.uk

I'm a newbie to fly fishing generally but had some good grayling action on Saturday on the Wharfe at Pool. I did a 9 foot leader with two droppers on a 9ft rod. What I found was if I put a big heavy "czech style" nymph then a small bead head in the middle and a black spider at the top it really helped with casting. Initially I was close in but when I spotted a nice looking lie further out having the lighter fly closer to the rod and getting progressively heavier really helped with distance and presentation. Incidentally all the Grayling went for the bead head nymph. If you love your dry flies you could try a Klink and Dink. Use a Klinkhammer with a small beaded nymph tied to a lenght of tippet connected to the bend of Klink. Dry fly, nymph and bite indicator all tied in to on!

Thank you very much! I've read all the linked articles, studied the flies and watched Paul's video. All together that's given me everything I'll need for a great day out. I've looked through my fly box with new eyes and I have just enough of everything needed to see me through the day, unless I lose all five largest beaded nymphs in the first hour. Maybe a quick visit to the tackle shop is needed just in case.
Hopefully I'll be posting a tale of success in a month's time.
Cheers chaps!

__________________
"Quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten."
"The pain of equipment failure lasts longer than the thrill of a bargain."
(from The Book of Tackle Acquisition, chapter 6, Universal Laws).

PS - if you drop down to one of our SPRITE events in Sheffield coming up in the winter I am sure you can get some one on one tuition from our many very good grayling anglers!

Schedule here:
Trout in the Town: SPRITE Winter events

Email me for details of meeting places if required on pgaskell@wildtrout.org

This is second hand info im sorry. Its my first season trout fishing. I go with a guy who fishes for everything both fly and bait. He says small dries for grayling in pools is the best fun you can have. I was asking what I should do when the season ends. He says Grayling have small mouths so dont fish anything too big...and they are a bit dumb so they will take anything that looks like snap. He also told me if I get a heavier rod and sinking line we can fish for winter pike. Sounds like fun!

Due to the heavy rain last week, the trip to Bolton Abbey was cancelled. So I wandered down to a local stretch of the River Don and tried my luck there for a couple of hours. It's shallow with lots of features.
I have to say, it was a lot more fun than fishing still waters. I had 3 - 4 foot of 3lb co polymer on my 9' rod, and used some purpose bought czech nymphs and some bead headed nymphs. It took a while to get the hang of following the fly and avoiding drag on the line, but I managed to catch half a dozen grayling and one brown trout.
The pink nymph was especially effective.
That's the best thing about trying new waters, it gets my mind working and makes the whole experience more rewarding than visiting my club reservoir.
Spotting takes was tricky at first, I found that simply working on instinct seemed to work well. I'll be doing a lot more river fishing next season.
Thanks for the tips gentlemen, you made for an very stimulating afternoon's fishing.

__________________
"Quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten."
"The pain of equipment failure lasts longer than the thrill of a bargain."
(from The Book of Tackle Acquisition, chapter 6, Universal Laws).