QQ ANGLING FOE GAME FISH. 



and it is usually impossible to say, until tlie experiment has 

 been tried, whether a river is or is not suitable for these 

 fish. One thing we know is necessary — pure water. 



Small grayling are in condition all the year round; but 

 the spawners (those two years of age and upwards) are only 

 at their best from August to February. Spawning in the 

 spring, they afford the fly-fisher sport during the autumn 

 and winter months, when trout are out of season. They 

 are not such good eating as sea trout, but when in condition 

 are, in my opinion, superior to the majority of brown trout. 

 While they do not play with the dash of a trout, they never- 

 theless die very hard, and give most excellent sport. Generally 

 speaking, they are, when feeding, easier to catch than trout; 

 but when much fished for, particularly in chalk- streams, they 

 get very shy. 



Haunts and Habits of Grayling.— Except that in the 

 North the large fish are not often found on shallows, nor any, 

 large or small, in the roughest water, grayling may be looked 

 for in all parts of a river. In Hampshire streams they may 

 be seen rising like trout, and are commonly fished for with a 

 dry fly ; and those shallows which are 1ft. to 4ft. in depth 

 often afford the best sport. In more rapid and undammed 

 rivers, the best places are the lower edges of deep pools, where 

 the water swirls round ; under banks, where the water is fairly 

 deep and rapid ; the sloping banks on the edges of deep, swift 

 streams ; and particularly in long stretches of the river between 

 two pools, where the water is 3ft. to 4ft. deep, and neither 

 very slow nor very rapid. Generally speaking, grayling haunt 

 quieter water than trout, and especially favour the smooth 

 glides before or after a strong stream. 



Grayling do not, like trout, swim near the surface when 

 inclined to feed, but dart perpendicularly from the bottom, 

 seize the fly, and instantly descend. They are enabled to do 

 this by means of a large air-bladder, which, so Dr. Hamilton 

 has discovered, works in connection with the back fin. When 

 the fin becomes erect, the bladder at once fills up with air, 

 and the fish rises to the surface ; when it lies over, the 

 bladder immediately gets smaller, and the fish drops to the 



