One of the most successful ways of catching trout and grayling all year round but particularly in the winter is by nymph fishing with a team of weighted flies. My two go-to patterns in the winter when fishing for grayling are the heavy nymph, which is the point fly, and pink nymph tied to a dropper. I fish these with #2 weight, 10ft Sage ESN rod, a DT2F line and a 9ft 5x tapered leader.
An adjustable indicator is used to set the depth at which the heavy nymph is fished and ideally this should just bounce, nicely, along the river bed. Because the fly is tied onto a jig hook and tungsten beads fitted behind the hook-eye, it inverts and so there is little chance of it snagging on the bottom. The team of flies are led down the river so that the indicator is always lagging behind the rod-tip. The surface current runs faster than the river bed current which helps with the presentation of the fly. It is both important and reassuring to feel the point fly bouncing along the bottom. The indicator is adjusted to suit different depths of water.
The dropper fly leads the point fly, and it hovers above the river bed moving with a tantalising movement, which the fish find irresistible.
A typical nymphing rig
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