It is a funny old season right enough, last season I caught no grayling at all and this year every time I go to my other river I am picking them up. I must say though that I am not fishing for them intentionally (they are out of season) – they are coming freely to my dry fly when I am casting to rising brown trout. There is a theory that grayling move around a river, travelling a fair old distance which is why one year you mat find none and the next lots, I had never had any experience of this but now I think I am seeing it first hand.
I caught a few brownies too but on the whole it was a frustrating evening, there were small flies on the water, plenty of trout rising but alas the vast majority were ignoring my flies. I would have a trout on a black klink then the rest would ignore it, switch to an olive, get a fish then they would ignore it again. I even managed to foul hook a trout just above the tail with a sedge. I thought I was going to have to call Alex to take my photo as it felt huge but soon found it was around 8 inches 🙂
Grayling? I’d kill to catch a grayling, but sadly, none that I know of here in the mountains of Northern California.
Still, like you I’ve been catching odd fish – I usually catch nothing but rainbows on the Upper Sacramento River (the native fish), but this year have seen several brown trout and even a couple of brook trout.
Never look a gift trout in the mouth…