I love Grayling, I just hate people talking about them as if they were anything but a fish.
I had chat with my pal Campbell about this on the phone as I staggered up the road from the train station home after a hard days grafting.
Grayling fishing a few years ago used to be a bit of a niche pastime, a few die hard trout heads would venture out after the trout season was over to have a bash at the “ladies of the stream” and would pick them up on bugs fished deep instead of the standard match rod. It sure beats sitting with your feet up or doing DIY. Campbell likened it to BDSM however I reckoned it was on the light side of bondage, maybe a bit of role play or tying up – no safe words needed. Full on BDSM would be fishing for tench in the canal with a fly rod – proper freaky shit.
Anyway, as I gander around the various forums that I visit all I read is:
“A great day with the ladies”
“Caught 6 ladies down the ****”
“Tough day with the ladies”
Maybe it is because I am a grumpy bastard as I have not touched a fly rod in a while but I have decided I hate people that call Grayling ladies. Oh sure, I will allow the odd comment and slip however if someone says “Ladeeeezzzz” again I am gonna go some passive aggressive on their ass and say “you mean Grayling right?”
Or possibly bottom scum sucking silver leaches.
Possibly!
Yesssssssssss! Totally!!!
It just seems that everyone seems to leap on the “lady” of the stream chat and run with it so much that they will end up buying the fish some flowers after the capture.
Down South, I mean Hampshire not Yorkshire, grayling fishing used to be the only way we plebs got to fish on some of the exclusive trout waters, where the rule was to knock as many on the head as possible. Very tasty they were too. Today these same rivers look on the grayling as a resource to be exploited, with all fish returned. When I comment to some of my Jessie friends, that I love the flavour of a fresh caught grayling, I’m greeted with looks of shock horror. Is it me? http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/
Was that really Matt (I’ve just discovered winter fishing for ladeeeeeezzzzzzeeee)commenting
SIGH…..The only Grayling fishing I’ve done entails a 4hour airplane ride to Alaska, or a two day road trip to upper British Columbia…and they are tasty…and they are one of the best looking critters you can catch…and even then most folks treat them as something else that gets in the way of trout catching. This time of year it’s Steelhead as the winter catch….to damn cold right now…..
@Ken, I think their is a new breed of angler that does not want to kill and eat any fish whatsoever at any time, they experience grief over the pain they possibly cause the fish, Personally I think if you do not kill and eat a fish once a season you should give the sport up!
@John Rodmell, he calls them grayling, I am happy with that!
@JP2 Yikes, and I found myself moaning about a car trip that can take an hour or so!
I thought it was just me! I hate that “ladies” thing too.
grayling are grayling and trout are trout, not “troots”.