220 
shoulders, a physical mark which may 
be seen in all the Montana grayling 
weighing over a quarter of a pound. 
The Au Sable fish take a larger fly and 
are caught more readily with it than 
those of the Manistee, where we found 
the standard trout feathers tied on Nos. 
to and 12 Sproat to be killing, but the 
Au Sable fish took brighter flies tied on 
Nos. 6 and 8 hooks most readily. We 
also found the last named fish to be 
very frequently in the deeper pools and 
stretches, catching but few of them in 
shallow as we have often 
done on the Manistee. 
So much has been written by scores 
of enthusiastic and accomplished fish- 
ermen about this beautiful fish, which 
has for the true angler a sentimental 
attraction beyond all other of the waters 
of the earth, that I do not propose to 
dwell upon this subject, referring those 
interested to the former issues of THE 
AMERICAN ANGLER, which contains 
hundreds of columns of printed matter 
descriptive of the grayling, its habits 
and methods of lure. But one phase 
of the subject cannot be dismissed 
summarily, and that is as to the proba- 
ble extinction of this tish in the near 
future. 
For years the decrease of grayling in 
Michigan streams has been a matter of 
concern with the craft of anglers. That 
they have grown less in number, year 
after year, and in some of the smaller 
waters have been exterminated, is con- 
ceded, and the reasons why we found 
as earnestly and anxiously discussed on 
the Au Sable, in last June, as we 
found them to be on the Manistee in 
1885. We must confess that we can- 
not come to a satisfactory conclusion in 
this matter. It is true that the logging 
of all the grayling streams has been car- 
ried on for years, and that this practice 
‘“swims,” 
The American Angler 
is greatly destructive to the spawning- 
beds of the -grayling, as it is in the 
spring of the year these fish spawn and 
when the logging of the streams takes 
place. Moreover, the building of tem- 
porary dams to hold back the water 
which, as we hear, is generally done 
by the loggers to increase the volume 
of the down flow when the dam is 
opened or broken up, is certainly de- 
structive, to an appreciable extent, of 
fish life, not only directly but by de- 
stroying or washing away the larva or 
matured insects upon which the gray- 
ling mainly feed. The grayling anglers, 
to a man, in Michigan appear to be 
building their hopes upon the early 
stoppage of logging in the Au Sable, 
the Manistee and their tributaries; un- 
til this is done, we will all be at a loss 
to define the limits of its influence on 
the decrease of this grand rod-fish. 
Many are disposed to attribute solely 
to the red-spotted trout the decadence 
of the grayling. These fish and the 
rainbow trout have certainly found a 
strong foothold in the Au Sable, but 
until the logging entirely ceases, it will 
be impossible to assign the true reasons 
for the decrease of the grayling. It is 
now a mere matter of conjecture, and 
has only one happy phase about it ; it 
furnishes the loving angler an inex- 
haustable theme for discussion, and 
any phase of the life of a grayling is to 
him, when in camp or on the stream, 
more fascinating than the melodies of 
the spheres or getting together the dol- 
lars of our daddies. That trout eat 
young grayling is doubtless true, for 
they eat their own fry; that they de- 
stroy great quantities of grayling eggs 
is also true, but there is another side of 
the question—when trout spawn, the 
grayling is in fine form, lusty in his 
autumn vigor, and hungrier than at 
