THE GRAYLING. 305 



gourmands to follow Judge Dolphin's plan there described, and taste the 

 two fish and then decide. Do not take my word for the excellence of 

 either. 



As I have before indicated, grayling are in season about the time 

 when trout are busy with their domestic affairs. Grayling are not so 

 susceptible of debilitating influences as trout, however, and it may be 

 safely said that they, like the eel, are never entirely unfit for sport or 

 food. From October to February may be pronounced the most preferable 

 period nevertheless, and the angler, if he deserve the name, will refuse 

 to wet a line for them during spawning time. During May, June, and 

 July, however plump and fat they may appear to be, they are out of 

 condition. Mr. Francis pronounces in his book an elaborate and 

 intensely humorous anathema against those who make sport of the 

 grayling out of season. It is worth reading. 



The methods of grayling capture are much the same as those employed 

 for brook trout. To be sure, he does not affect the minnow, but in 

 regard to his ephemeral food flies, grubs, caterpillars, &c. there is 

 very little difference in the appetite of the two. The axiom when 

 angling for grayling laid down by Eonalds should never be forgotten 

 when a choice of flies is being made : " The angler should bear in mind 

 that the coleopteron or beetle will be on the water on hot days principally ; 

 the ephemera, or fish fly, on rather cold days ; the phryganea or water 

 fly, as the grannon, &c., on cloudy days with gleams of sunshine ; the 

 diptera, and other land flies, as the cow dung, &c., on windy days." For 

 my own fishing I always begin with a palmer as a stretcher, and the 

 fly which seems most suitable as a dropper, and have found such an 

 arrangement could hardly be improved on. From the grayling being, if 

 anything, a quicker sighted fish than the trout, it is necessary that the 

 finest tackle be used, and large flies must be eschewed the grayling is 

 truly the "lady" in this respect, nothing coarse or gross will allure it. 



The flies given in the list for trout are, in the greater number of 

 cases, applicable to grayling, and I shall only seek to vary the selection 

 by giving the "fancies" of Jesse and Sir Humphry Davy, both enthu- 

 siastic grayling fishers of the old school. Eonalds very truthfully 

 remarks : 



" The principal differences between trout and grayling fishing are, that 

 the latter requires a more delicate hand, a quicker eye, and the use of 

 smaller flies upon the finest gut. The strike must be made on the instant 

 of the rise. The fish may be sometimes seen, if he be of a good size and 

 the water bright, a few inches before he gets up to the fly, and the 

 fisherman must strike immediately that he does so, for his motion at the 

 instant of seizure is too rapid to be visible. 



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