Open Season: Grayling on the Agenda.

 This time last season I was faced with a very tough days fishing which ultimately came good after many hours of trotting with very little reward, just 30 minutes from the end of that trip came the all important take and the battle that followed was one I'll never forget in all my years ahead, quite incredible as was the Grayling that fell to a single grain of yellow corn, a PB of 2lb 11oz which I was aiming to better this time around.

This seasons benchmark.

 This time around myself and Brian decided on a two day trip down "souf" in search of a big Lady, what better place could an angler tackle than the picturesque River Frome which carves it's way through the Dorset countryside, the drive is long at nearly three-hours but certainly worth it. An early start from South London you'd think would have dragged but it never does, the thought of encountering my target of a three-pound Grayling is enough to keep my thoughts running away into dreamland, in truth all my fishing exploits send my mind wandering, just never knowing what the fishing gods could send your way. Having the correct bait does help immensely though.

 We arrived nice and early into Wareham to collect our books and maggots to find out the tackle shop didn't open until 830! After spending an hour waiting for the shop to open we gazed at the infamous Roach bridge over Wareham Quay, if you don't know about this particular area it is renowned for it's huge Roach potential. When the shop opened we bowled in to get the books and bait, with hands filled with tubs to load up with maggots we were told that they had ran out of stock! ON THE OPENING DAY OF THE COARSE SEASON! complete and utter bollocks, I was completely aghast at what I'd been told, November 1st is the opening to two of the biggest coarse books in the county and he ran out of bait......missing a big trick me lado! As nice enough bloke he was, thats nonsense.

 I run my own business being self employed and if I don't know when my busiest times are or when I can expect large demand then I might aswell sell up and go on the dole!. So for two days it was red and yellow sweetcorn, not that I haven't done well on it in the past but the maggots would have certainly been a strong addition to the feed. After plenty of messing around I think we got fishing around 10am, not ideal considering we left at 5am, but not all plans go smooth as you'd like.

My first decent trotting run.

 First couple of swims looked good but provided nothing in regards to action, then having found a nice double bend downstream I fished the exit of the first turn and trotted fifteen yards on the straight before it turned again on the reverse, this proved to be a good swim for all of 20 minutes, five quick fire grayling to 1lb 7oz and that was it, another 3 hours on that run provided nothing but a couple of bites, not that I felt I wasn't fishing well as on the contrary I don't think there was much more I could do.

Best of the early afternoon @ 1.07.

 Hours passed by with not much to shout about until dusk when I had an aborted run off of a Pike, a little excitement which kept me alive. As the sun began to disappear I switched back to the grayling I managed two in the swim I caught from earlier in the day which were both best of the day (1.08 & 1.11), the latter I was going to take a quick snap of but I got shout from across the field that Brian had caught a Pike so I slipped my biggest Grayling of the trip back without a pic, but his Pike was mint and one I would have been pleased to have caught.

 We finished the evening watching the amazing Jurassic Coast sunset before heading to Poole for Curry, Beer and a kip ready for day two.

 Day two.....what a lovely sight to wake up to, land low clouds and completely eire, perfect for a days grayling fishing I thought, everything just seemed right so we got down to task at hand and I was setup already, first couple of trots down I had a fierce bite on the float which I somehow missed, something was home! I think with a couple more trots I got the line right and the fish began to find my bait. A couple of nice Grayling came to net to 1.08, then I lost a good fish in the flow which felt like a big Grayling but was unsure as it was unsighted, ten minutes later I got a storming take and i was into a better fish, certainly felt bigger, out in the flow it felt really big and played it with caution, I had visions of a monster high 2 or 3lb specimen on the other end, as it got closer to the net she shrank in size but still a good fish.

1lb 11oz Frome warrior with slight Otter damage to its bottom lobe of the tail.

 Not bad at all, that Grayling was followed by a brownie which did its best to pretend I was locked into battle with a large Grayling, my heart sank when it surfaced a few feet from me out in the flow, not what I wanted! but great sport on the light gear. A couple more fish did follow but it was hard going from there on with just a couple more small Grayling and Trout coming to the net, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon searching for pods of fish amongst the vast runs of weed still present, a large dose of rain is certainly needed to get it shifted, but suspect there will be a lot come christmas time.

 The last part of the trip was to have a reccy at another stretch of the Frome and boy were we in for a treat, arguably one of the prettiest stretches of river I have ever laid eyes on, sadly we didn't catch but it was just an awesome place to see and will certainly be getting some attention before i go off on my travels in early December. I love this place and not even caught a fish there.

 The tally for the two days was sixteen Grayling with the best at 1lb 11oz x2 and four Trout. Not prolific but surely can get better.