By Simon Cooper
THE GRAYLING’S JOURNEY What could beat fly fishing for grayling in beautiful surroundings?
T
hose of us familiar with TV reality shows such as the X Factor know well that every contestant is on ‘a journey.’ That time in a life when purpose becomes a thing. In days of old we’d probably have reached back to Sunday school teachings for some Biblical reference: St Paul on the Road to Damascus springs to mind. The grayling has, albeit unknowingly, been on one such journey.
Latin names for fish are often dull and obscure but not the grayling Thymallus thymallus. It smells like it reads: the thyme herb. I knew an old river keeper many years ago who swore he could scent the presence of grayling on a cold, frosty morning. I’m not sure I ever believed him but grayling do truly smell unlike any other fish I have ever handled. The mark of a successful grayling day is hands that still, hours
The Author with a ‘Lady of the stream’. 44
Spring/Summer 2021 Irish Country Sports and Country Life
later, trace in the air a musky, grassy but antiseptic aroma. In this century grayling are a worthy adversary for any angler. Fly fishers enjoy the autumn challenge as trout take to their spawning beds for the winter. Coarse anglers delight in the sensual art of trotting, breaking out refined and perfectly balanced centre pin reels. It is the time of year to not only do battle against the fish but also the short nature of the days and swollen rivers. Success is usually hard won and we love our grayling for that. But in the last century that love was in short supply. Today, writers such as myself readily describe grayling at the Fourth Game Fish or the Lady of the Stream but had I been penning this column 50 or a 75 years ago I wouldn’t have been penning it all. For nobody liked, cared or was interested in grayling. They were vermin. I have fishery rule cards in my desk drawer from as late at the 1990s that state: All grayling MUST be killed. And it wasn’t just the prejudice of a few. The National River Authority, as the Environment Agency of England
