When Grayling fishing, I’ve lost more jig flies to the bottom of the river than I’d like to admit. The trouble is, if you’re not losing the odd one, you’re probably not fishing deep enough.
You know the type of runs I mean. It’s not the pretty bit at the head of the pool but the stretch below it, where the water picks up speed and goes a shade darker.
You’d put money on a fish being there.
So you cast, mend and follow the drift.
Nothing.
You do it again and change fly. Then you change it again, and eventually you walk off muttering that it must be that your biorhythms are not in sync!
I’ve done this more times than I care to remember, and here’s what I eventually worked out. It wasn't the river (or my biorhythms). The fish were exactly where I thought they were - tight to the bottom where the current slackens. It's just my nymph was drifting over their heads, it may as well have been in a different postcode!
That’s exactly the issue the flies we're launching today aim to solve ...
Our NEW Depth Charge Jig is a compact, nymph built to get down to the fish quickly and stay there.
It’s tied on a size 14 barbless jig hook, weighted so it gets down fast and uses a point-up hook that gets through the rocks, snags and leaves without stopping (usually).
It has a translucent shellback over a sparkly, buggy body, with a dark collar swept back from the gunmetal bead. It’s slim enough to look like dinner but heavy enough to get in the 'zone'.
I’ve made choosing which fly to use from this selection really easy. There are four colours, three of each, and each colour has its own job:
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Olive - the quiet all-rounder, and my first choice in clear, low water when the fish are wary.
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Rust - it’s the one for autumn and stained water, and it could pass for a stonefly or a caddis pupa.
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Pink - for the grayling, and for the days when the river looks like tea. Yes, pink. They’ve never read the rulebook.
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Cahill - a soft cream and ginger with a golden back. It’s the subtle one for picky fish.
Supplying three of each means you can fish them properly, which means getting them down on the bottom, where you’ll occasionally lose one - I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
A fly that never touches the riverbed is a fly that isn’t fishing where the fish are at this time of year.
Please Note: If you scroll down to the very end of this email, I'll show you how I fish these Depth Charge Jigs for the early-season Grayling.
To say that our tyers have done us proud is an understatement - considering they are pretty fiddly to tie - these are exceptional.
You can see from the images in this email that the bodies are all the correct proportions, they are tied to be very 'scruffy' (to trap air) - just how the fish seem to like them.
Here we present our Depth Charge Jig Selection, which contains 3 each of four different colour variatins (all tied on a size 14 barbless jig hook):
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Pink
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Olive
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Rust; and
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Cahill
We are making these available to you only as a selection. The selection contains 3 (three) of each pattern - in total, there are 12 Depth Charge Jigs in the selection - all tied on size 14 barbless jig hooks with 3.2mm bead heads.
Our NEW Depth Charge Jig Selection is now available for only £20.00, supplied in our eco-friendly packaging and delivered FREE of charge to anywhere in the UK.
If you'd like your Depth Charge Jigs supplied in a nice slimline silicone box, we've got you covered (just click on either the image or green button below), they're only an extra £10:
*** We only have a small number of these available (32 to be exact), so you will need to be quick ***
Get out there and lob some early-season Grayling nymphs around, and have fun!
P.S. Here's how I usually fish them:
The jig hook fishes with the point-up, so you can bounce a nymph along the bottom without snagging (too much). The fly stays small and slim, like the real thing.
For Early-season Grayling:
Grayling usually sit on or near the bottom, in steadier, deeper glides and at the head and tail of pools. They'll rise to a fly, but they won't chase one far, so it has to be down and tumbling along the bottom in front of them.
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Get it down, then keep it there: If you never touch the bottom, you're not deep enough. If you snag every cast, you're too deep or lifting late.
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Expect quiet takes: The sighter slows or tightens rather than darting away. Lift, don't strike.
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Lift at the end of the drift: Let the fly swing round and rise at the end. Grayling love to take it as it comes up (called 'the induced take').
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Stay put: Catch one and there are usually more beside it, so put a few more casts through the same water before you move on.
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Try two flies: A Hare's Ear on the point and a Purple above it, and let the fish tell you which they prefer.
For Both Trout & Grayling:
Use a fine tippet (0.12–0.14mm), and check your beat rules on fly numbers before you use a multi-fly rig. All the patterns in our selection are barbless, so keep steady pressure on and never let the line go slack. The jig hook tends to catch in the top of the lip, so once you're connected, they usually stay connected.
