64 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



An English grayling of about i^ lbs. weight is as hand- 

 some in his own peculiar style of beauty as the trout, 

 for if he lack the crimson spots and golden burnishment, 

 he has a fine admixture of blue and silver, while his shape 

 is faultless. 



There is another kind of fly-fishing to be followed during 

 September and October, of which I for one am extremely 

 fond, albeit it has a somewhat unj^retentious object, being 

 directed to nothing more important than the common dace. 

 The dace is really one of our surface feeders. He may be 

 found during the winter time in deep water, keeping 

 company with the roach, and he congregates in force in 

 deep mill-tails and weir-pools, where he will take the 

 small red worm or the gentle with very much the boldness 

 of the perch. In Autumn, however, the dace still lingers upon 

 the shallows, and rises well at almost any small fly. Take 

 two examples of dace-fishing in the autumn. The first was 

 in the Thames, above Richmond Bridge. All the shallows, 

 from Twickenham downwards, have a well deserved repute 

 for fly-fishing for dace, and the Thames-side urchins, 

 with willow-wands, lengths of whipcord, and anything in 

 the shape of a fly which they can beg or borrow, make 

 nice little strings of fish, running to about seven or eight 

 inches in length. A sunshiny day, with a soft ripple, is 

 the best for this sport, and one might pass away four or 

 five hours in worse amusement than wading into the 

 Thames opposite Ham Lane, and whipping down upon the 

 shallows with the fancy black and red flies manufactured 

 for the purpose, their speciality being tiny strips of wash- 

 leather, in place of tail. There is a continual procession of 

 pleasure-boats up this gay reach of the Thames, and the 

 familiar features of Richmond Hill are an elevated back- 

 ground to the picture which the downward moving angler 



