136 THE TROUT 



fairly at the fly more than two or three times, and 

 then seems to become disgusted with both you and 

 it, thereafter declining to have anything more to do 

 with you for some time, a grayling will, on the other 

 hand, continue to rise for nearly as long as you like 

 to persevere, if you now and again give him a minute 

 or so between the casts. 



Isaac Walton knew of this peculiarity, and says 

 of the grayling that 'he bites not often at the minnow 

 and is very gamesome at the fly and much simpler, 

 and therefore, bolder than the trout, for he will rise 

 twenty times at a fly if you miss him and yet rise 

 again.' 



The grayling when first taken out of the water 

 has a peculiar smell, which in a limited degree re- 

 sembles that of wild thyme : hence its name Salmo 

 thymallus. 



Referring for one moment to the subject of ' grass- 

 hoppering ' alluded to above, it should be pointed out 

 that the so-called grasshopper is an artificial bait not 

 in the least resembling the natural insect, but rather 

 some kind of fat, wingless grub. Grayling are also 

 caught with gentles, or with small red worms, much 

 in the manner adopted when worm fishing for trout. 



With regard to size, in Derbyshire a pound gray- 

 ling is a good fish ; in Wiltshire and Hampshire they 



