Border raid for a 3lb 1oz grayling best

Simon Ashton’s New Year’s resolution was to beat his grayling personal best, and it didn’t take him long to achieve when he slipped the net under several 2lb-plus fish – topped by this 3lb 1oz beauty. 

The Durham angler’s previous record was 2lb 2oz, but during a two-week spell he managed to smash this a number of times from an undisclosed Scottish river. 

Simon said: “During the Christmas holidays I did some research and came up with a plan to cross the border and fish one of the Scottish rivers for its rich stock of hard-fighting grayling. 

“The trip proved to be a fruitful one as what was meant to be a recce trip soon turned into a red letter day.

“Not only did I smash my pb by 10oz, but I beat that many times, landing 20-odd grayling to 2lb 12oz.

“The next weekend I raced up the M6 to fish the same pool and after feeding the swim with maggots for 10minutes, my first trot through produced the 3lb 1oz specimen.”

Simon’s winning rig included an 8g loafer float with two grains of flavoured corn mounted on a size 14 super-spade wide gape hook.