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Clever feeding trick fools glorious grayling brace

@Adam Whitby

by Aidan Bordiuk |

Published on22nd January 2026 at 9.38am

Grayling are a very sensitive species, and by their very nature require excellent water quality to thrive. This is why they are so often found in chalk streams, as they provide the perfect environment for them to flourish. However, this usually means the trout, that also inhabit these waterways, can be a prominent nuisance when targeting grayling, particularly when using bait.

The shy nature of grayling often means that a hooked trout splashing and darting around a swim can be enough to spook any fish in the area, so to avoid this, Sam Marshall has developed a clever little trick to help avoid nuisance trout by adopting the use of floating pellets.

"Both myself and my three-year-old daughter Amarie ventured down to our local stretch of the River Kennet for a short trotting session recently, which resulted in the capture of a lovely brace of grayling weighing 2lb 5oz and 2lb 11oz, which is also a new pb," Sam told us.

"The fish were both caught on trotted maggots, with my daughter netting both fish for her dad and doing me proud."

"I have found that when trotting the chalkstreams with stocked trout, mixing a little bit of floating pellets in with your maggots can be a real benefit."

"A lot of stocked trout are fed on a floating pellet, and by emulating what they get fed, it helps draws the trout to the surface searching for the pellet and keeps the grayling down on the maggots where you can catch them," Sam explained.

DON'T BE WITHOUT THESE BAITS WHEN TARGETING GRAYLING!

Amarie and Sam with the lovely brace of grayling | Credit: Adam Whitby

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