1G4 



casting up-stream and allowing the fly to sink, I did get 

 liold of a few fish, but only two good ones took my sunk 

 fly, and both of these get off, after a brief sldttering fight. 

 The expert trout fisherman has much to learn before he can 

 attain to anything like proficiency in the art of catching 

 grayling. Of course, I refer only to those streams w'here 

 nothing but the fly is permitted to be used, but judging by 

 the "side" put on by successful "floaters of the worm," I 

 suppose that my statement holds good in regard to that 

 unclean method of capture. The worm has no charm for 

 me, and those who use it are welcome to all the fish they 

 catch — I would prefer to go home with an empty creel. 

 This may be Quixotic, southern prejudice, but I plead 

 guilty to it, and am not ashamed to do so. Foregathering 

 with a man, the other day, by the riverside, on a length of 

 the Itchen teeming with grayling, I asked him, " What has 

 been your best basket this season ? " He lifted the lid of 

 his creel, and said, " There it is ! " The contents consisted 

 of a brace, the best Iflb., and the other l|lb. And this 

 man had fished two or three days a week upon one of the 

 best lengths of the Itchen all through the season ! Verily 

 we anglers are a patient and long-suffering class of the 

 community, and it takes but little in the shape of tangible 

 results to repay us for our expenditure of toil and money ! 

 But does the contents of the creel represent our only return ? 

 No ! A day by the riverside takes us out of ourselves ; the 

 world and all its petty vexations slide away from us as we 

 cast the fly, and the brain-worker gains more from a few 

 hours thus spent than he would from any other source of 

 recreation. 



