Trotting For Grayling
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 13 December 2009 15:03
- Written by Alex Laurie
Whilst I really enjoy nymphing for grayling, there are some circumstances where trotting is the best bet. An added bonus is that unlike many nymphing situations, you generally don’t have to wade up to your naughty parts in icy water! So, for people who are not quite sure how to go about it, this is a quick rundown on the approach I take to trotting.
Tackle
I find a proper float rod of 12 or 13 feet is ideal though some use longer rods of 14 or 15 feet. The long rod helps in controlling the trot of the float down the swim better than would a shorter rod. It gives more “reach” than a shorter rod and so can exercise more control over the float. A long rod will also lift slack line off the water more effectively than a short one, so it is better both for mending the line and for striking.
For reels I prefer a centrepin, but they do take a bit of getting used to. A fixed spool is much easier to start with.
For fixed spool reels, the reel is loaded to the very lip of the spool with a breaking strain of around 4lb line and a floating line at that. Some lines are prone to sinking, which is not so good for trotting. A floating line is essential. I like Drennan Floatfish or Shakespeare Aerial Pro. Don't whatever you do be tempted to try trotting with 6lb line or so. You will not be able to do it effectively and will have a frustrating day trying to coax your float to peel the line off the spool.
If using maggots, a bait bag slung round the neck is very handy and means I can feed a few maggots easily every cast without having to constantly open and close a bait box
All you need to complete the tackle is a selection of trotting floats in various shapes and sizes, some hooks to nylon, a split shot dispenser containing shot in various sizes and spare float rubbers, or float caps as they are called. A small disgorger (which works like a Ketchum Release) and a small pair of forceps completes the tackle requirements.
To minimise hook damage to the fish, I prefer barbless hooks, except when using worms, which can wriggle free of these. Generally however, I’ll be fishing maggot and this means hooks in sizes 20 to 14, with 18 and 16 being most used. These days, I buy spade ends ready tied to nylon hooklengths of around 2lb to just under 4lb b.s.
The hooklength of 18” or so is always of a lighter breaking strain than my main line. That way if I get snagged and have to pull for a break, I only lose the hook. It also means that if I break off on a fish, the fish doesn’t have to tow yards of line around, thus condemning it to death.
Floats come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, but for trotting, a selection of Drennan loafers or balsas and avons with some wire stemmed avons would cover most situations. The shot carrying capacity is marked on the side and it would be advisable to get a selection of floats carrying from 4SSG down to 3BB. I find I use the size range 5BB to 4AAA mostly.
Setting Up The Tackle
After threading the line through the rings, I size up the water where I intend to start and select a float which I think will carry enough shot to fish the swim effectively. The float is attached by threading the line through the rubber rings or float caps which should have been supplied with the float. The top and bottom of the float is then inserted into the float caps. It can be a good idea to use three of these rather than two as three will grip the line more tightly and avoid the float sliding down the line when fishing.
It is generally better to use several small shot rather than a couple of large ones. That way you can then try different shotting patterns to give different effects in the water. The exception would be when fishing really fast and deep water at distance, when several SSG shot might be needed to keep the bait down.
In shotting the float it is important to remember that the distance from the hook to the lowest shot should be less than the distance from the lowest shot to the next shot up. This follows on all the way up. If you follow this rule you will have fewer tangles when casting.
To clarify what I mean. If the distance from the hook to your lowest shot is 12", the next shot up should be no less than about 14" and the next one up would be at least 16" and so on... Another thing to bear in mind, from the tangling point of view, is to never use a shot or group of shot which is heavier than the one above it. The same weight is ok, but never heavier.
There are basically two methods of shotting a float for trotting:
A) Bulk shotting.
Hook to tell tale (bottom shot) 6 to 10" (the bottom shot would typically be a no.6 or thereabouts). The bulk shot would be 12” or more above this and consist of several BBs or AAAs (or even SSGs in really deep fast water). This set up would be for use where I want to get the bait down to the bottom quickly and/or where a longer cast is needed.
B) Shirt button shotting.
Hook to bottom shot 8 to 12" next shot up (a No.1) would be maybe 14" away, with a BB 16" above that followed by another BB or maybe 2BB 18" above that...you get the picture.
The distances between the shot is fine tuned until I am getting bites, or am happy with the way the bait is behaving on its way down the stream. This set up is definitely my favourite for shallowish areas. In fact I find this set up is the one I use the most, although many others never deviate from the bulk shotting approach and seem to catch their share.
Feeding
I find that regular feeding makes all the difference and there is an art to this. Little and often is mostly the way to go. No more than a dozen maggots or so at a time and I try to feed even just a couple of maggots every cast. It helps me to get into a rhythm and it often pays off. By feeding even two maggots I stay “in the groove”.
I feed before I cast, not after. The idea is to get the fish looking out for maggots. Suddenly the hookbait appears....Bingo!
If I am fishing deep, fast water, I try to fire the feed in well upstream so that the maggots are reaching bottom at around the same point where my hookbait is sinking to the bottom. A catapult is the tool to use and by using one I keep the feed tightly grouped. If you try to throw maggots any distance, they end up all over the place and so do the grayling. I want to group the fish together and by so doing keep them competing for food.
Incidentally, if I don’t know the swim, I don’t start feeding until I have built up a mental picture of the bottom and then I concentrate on feeding where I think the fish are likely to be.
For deep water I sometimes use a bait dropper, but fellow grayling angler Brian Tulloch gave me a good idea which is probably less hassle and causes less disturbance.
A heavy blockend feeder such as a Kamasan Black Cap will do the same job. To get the maggots out of the feeder quickly, cast out and let it settle on the line of current you wish to trot (obviously cast just upstream of where you will be chucking your float). Then gently lift and bump the feeder a foot or so along the bottom. This should get the maggots out without spreading them too far from your line of trot.
Now For The Fishing
To cast, I swing out the float underhand if possible to make sure the shot lands in a straight line and tangle free. As the float goes down the swim it will dip and perhaps go under as the hook or shot touches bottom. I always strike just in case it is a fish. A few trots allows me to build up a picture of where the shallows are.
I can then hold back the float hard as the bait reaches the shallows to get the maximum length of trot from each cast. This holding back is where the centrepin excels, but I would be a liar if I said you won't have problems before getting the hang of using one. They are worth persevering with though.
Even without a centrepin it is easy to slow down the progress of the bait when using a fixed spool reel by lightly tapping the lip of the spool regularly. You can experiment yourself to find the correct speed to tap at to suit the speed of current. Tapping retards the flow of line off the reel and the faster you tap, the more often will the line be trapped on the spool, resulting in a slower trot.
Fishing overdepth and holding back to creep the bait along the bottom before the float is usually a deadly tactic, but nothing works all of the time and sometimes the fish want the bait running through fast.
It is important to remember that grayling are shoal fish. When I hook one, I try to get it away from the shoal ASAP so that it doesn't spook the others. If practical, I use sidestrain to turn the head of the fish and lead it away from the shoal.
I will only give a particular spot an hour or so before moving on if I’m not hitting fish. Sometimes this means fishing just a couple of areas in a day and sometimes it is case of searching for the odd fish all day. I try to leave the most promising area until last, as the grayling really can switch on as the light fades.
That more or less summarises how I fish the float. I hope it is useful and helps a few folk to get a grayling or two in the net.
Alex Laurie , now in his 50s, has been fishing since the tender age of 12. He used to do a lot of coarse fishing and, until just a few years ago, held the Scottish bream record with a 10lb 4oz fish. Alex has fished all over the world, including Alberta Canada and has cast a fly in New Zealand for 7 out of the last 8 years. He prefers rivers, but loves our wild highland lochs too.
Alex is a qualified SGAIC fly fishing instructor and while he works in property management, he claims he is really a frustrated blues guitarist. Alex lives with his very understanding partner Linda in Cambuslang near Glasgow.