198 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



of the deadest-hearted fishes in the world, and 

 the bigger he is the more easily taken,' passes 

 my understanding, although we must remember 

 that this remark was passed to ' Viator ' on his 

 catching a grayling in the early part of March, 

 when the fish would be out of condition in all 

 probability. I confess to a feeling of disappoint- 

 ment at the summary way in which Walton dis- 

 misses the grayling, showing that he did not 

 think very highly of him either from an edible 

 or sporting point of view. 



" Grayling will rise readily to the artificial fly, 

 and although they will come again time after 

 time if missed (or perhaps I should say if they 

 miss the fly, which is more usual), they require 

 the neatest and finest tackle and the most deli- 

 cate handling to secure them ; and as Francis 

 Francis truly says, ' when you have hooked a 

 grayling, your next job is to land him.' . . . 

 There is a lot of difference between the way a 

 well-conditioned trout and grayling fight after 

 being hooked, and this may account for some 

 of the condemnation heaped upon the latter as 

 to its non-sportive character ; for although not so 

 lively as the trout with its mad rushes for liberty, 

 yet the kind of resistance is more dangerous to 



