Lead it deep

This morning I had chance to do some fly fishing with my cousin Niko. He is my regular fly fishing partner, but this was only the second time in this season that he was able to go fishing. This is because Niko - as well as his friend and our mutual fishing partner Mika - are building houses for their families. They both also have small children so with the building project, family and work, they just are running out of fishing time.

We had some nice conversations, but did not do very well in the actual fishing part. There was some mayfly and caddis fly activity, but only few raising fish. My start was good however as I pulled first grayling in first or second cast from spot where I usually get my first fish. Grayling was small, only about 25 cm or 10 inches. It accepted #14 Superpupa with green body - a fly pattern which is showing some promise. But after this first fish, I did not manage to hook any fish for few hours. Time was running out - we had a work day ahead of us. I was fishing under the bridge and decided to add few split shots to my rig of bead head nymph with a streamer dropper. I changed my technique from downstream swing to nymphing. I didn’t add any strike indicator but fished with a short tight line. With tight line technique I keep my stick not high - as in high stick nymphing - but very near the water surface.

After few minutes of serious fly fishing I felt a strong fish and to my surprise it was not a trout but a grayling. It took another few minutes before it was in my net. This grayling was about 38 cm or 15 inches. It happens at times that even I stop banging my head to the wall and do something right for a change.

Don’t I just look Good with my fit-over Polaroid’s?