146 THE GRAYLING. 



is very good meat at all times : but in his perfect season ; which 

 by the way, he adds, ' none but an overgrown grayling ever will be, 

 I think him to be as good a fish, as to be little inferior to the best 

 trout that 1 ever tasted in my life.' 



But notwithstanding the grayling is so good a fish, it is by no 

 means a general one, though it seems to thrive well in every water 

 in which I have known it introduced. In the Test in Hampshire 

 which was stocked with this fish from the Avon, they thrived so 

 well, that in the course of a few years many were found to have 

 attained the weight of four or five pounds, and the same has also 

 occurred in the Itchen, which was afterwards stocked with gray- 

 ling transported from the Test. It is indeed to be desired that this 

 fish could be introduced into all our rivers, as it would not only 

 afford a pleasing variety to the angler's recreation, but would sup- 

 ply an excellent fish for the table when the trout are out of sea- 

 son ; and as the former fish will sport freely in moderate weather 

 all through the autumn, winter, and spring, the angling rod need 

 then never be laid aside. 



As the spring advances the grayling begins to get out of season, 

 spawning usually about the latter end of April or the beginning 

 of May. His best season is about the latter end of the autumn ; 

 his worst about the time the trout is in the highest perfection, 

 though the grayling recovers his condition after spawning much 

 more rapidly than the latter fish. To eat a grayling in perfection 

 he ought to be dressed the same day on which he was caught, 

 otherwise he loses much of that curdy firmness that renders him 

 so superior a fish. Though active and swift in his motions, he 

 does not migrate much from one part of the river to another ; and 

 although these fishes have multiplied to a great degree both in the 

 Test and the Itchen, they are as yet confined to certain limits 

 which they do not seem inclined to extend ; and it has been re- 

 marked of them, by those who have had the greatest opportunities 

 of watching their motions, that they are never like the rest of the 

 salmon tribe, seen working their way over a fall or a rapid, but 

 rather to descend the stream than to struggle against it, though 

 as before remarked they are seldom found to wander far from 

 their original locality. 



The grayling is a very sportive fish, rising freely at a fly, and he 

 may also be taken with the same baits as the trout, except the minnow, 

 which from the smallness of his mouth he is not adapted to seize 



