downstream nymphing and domestic grayling

[Mika]

Have you found similar fishes from your rivers, which allows you to be their home rock? Have you been doing downstream nymphing? I know normally you nymph upstream but in our waters fishing is going mostly downstream so you need to adjust your fishing.

[Boisker]

I always head up the river... so fishing in ‘an upstream direction’, but at this time of year when predominantly nymphing fish the water in any direction that works, but still heading upstream...
I tend to fish a long leader set up and generally try to cast upstream and fish down just past me...

[Mika]

We have unwritten rule that you can't stay more than 30 min in one place and then you need to make room for others, also one who is coming from upstream has "right to walk over you" if you are not moving. This is basicly coming from trout fishing, because we have same kind of runs like in salmon rivers. And if you are coming from downstream, well you can do it but you won't have any friends by the river anymore.
But I do "normal" nymphing upstream but also I continue more downstream than normally and then in the end doing Leisenring lift. That is a killer.

[Paul Arden]

It depends but almost always I’ll fish and move downstream when nymphing for Grayling. Whereas for trout I would usually fish upstream. I think it depends on a number of things but a very obvious one is how much the fish are fished for. Fish that are fished only occasionally - day once per day or less - tend to be very spooky. If these fish are approached from an upstream position they spook. Whereas fish that are fished for far more frequently are used to anglers’ presence. On the other hand these are more difficult to catch and hang on to the fly for less time. These fish I find best fished fro from an upstream position, and if I’m fishing downstream it’s easier to move downstream.

There are many exceptions to this of course

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Was thinking about this some more and it also depends on river size. Very small streams you have to move upstream because you’ll spook everything when you travel downstream no matter how used to anglers they are!

There is an exception to this in Croatia on a canal where I fish where it’s just about impossible to get the depth on the fish when fishind from downstream, so in this case you slide down the bank from a “long way” upstream position and fish down! These are trout however and it’s rare to find a grayling there.

Love your FP dancing technique My way of catching these fish is to stick the rod under my arm and drop the flies at my feet. Maybe we should invent a very short rod!! But with your dancing technique I can see you won’t need it

Cheers, Paul