GRAYLING FISHING. 139 
The mouth of the Grayling is exceedingly tender ; and 
consequently both striking and playing, the fish requires 
to be handled carefully. For the same reason, and also 
from the peculiar character of the banks, a net is 
almost a necessity in Grayling waters. The light 
pocket-net described in the chapter on tackle, will be 
found the most convenient for the purpose. 
Grayling but seldom take the minnow, either natural 
or artificial, or the worm. The three most killing ways 
of fishing for them being with the artificial fly, with the 
artificial grasshopper, and by float-fishing with gentles. 
FLY-FISHING. 
Fly - fishing for Grayling ‘begins in earnest in 
August—that is, about a month earlier than either the 
grasshopper or gentle fishing—and continues through 
September and October. Fair bags may not un- 
frequently be made as late as November, but a warm 
day, and the middle hours of it, are then desiderata. 
Indeed, as soon as the weather becomes cold, the 
warmest hours of the day, say from 12 till 2 or 3 
o'clock, will usually prove best for the fly. The flies 
locally used for Grayling fishing are not quite so 
numerous as those for Trout—the only reason being, 
I believe, that the localities themselves are fewer ; but 
still the Grayling fisher’s repertory will commonly con- 
tain from ten to twenty varieties, good and bad, the 
greater part of which are wholly unnecessary, and in their 
