310 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



the neck and along down the back, but not out. You are then ready for 

 grasshopper-fishing. 



In " Tackle and Tackle Making" will be found particulars of some very 

 excellent imitations of grasshoppers and grubs, which are often of great 

 value to an angler, although never equal to the natural bait. 



We will now suppose ourselves at the side of the stream, with either 

 of the baits before given attached. The time should be as early as the 

 habits of the angler will permit, for as with the proverbial early bird 

 so with the angler. We will furthermore suppose the angler is at 

 the head of a good, clean, long, gravelly swim about six feet deep. The 

 crowquill is placed just above the water on the fine silk undressed line 

 not below, as some suggest, my opinion being that grayling at once 

 perceive the moving white float, as it moves if it be so fixed. Above the 

 water some few inches, therefore, be it. The motion is to be described as 

 a sink and draw, and I always found it advisable to fish up-stream, for 

 the reasons given in the place for up-stream fishing in the chapter 

 devoted to trout. The essential point in this sink and draw motion is 

 never to let the bait rest for more than just the tenth part of a second, 

 or it touches the ground. Let it it be incessantly moving, so far as you 

 are concerned, and when it stops at all, then is the time to strike. 



Perhaps you are quietly fishing, and quite unconscious of the proximity 

 of the grayling. But, see ! your tiny float stops slightly in its descent 

 and, yes ! Did you not feel the almost imperceptible motion of some- 

 thing alive at the end of your line ? That was a grayling, who, with 

 ladylike gentleness, took the bait. Strike ! You have the fish. 



No amount of writing will teach the angler when to strike in this 

 particular style of fishing. The precise time must be learned, and it is 

 acquired by the respective and harmonious education of eye and hand. 



The time, as I have intimated, when to fish, is early ; and indeed, it 

 should be added, before the flies arise. When the flies are on the water, 

 I consider it a sin to use a bait of this kind, but cannot go quite so far 

 as Mr. Francis in his condemnation and comical anathema of all sorts 

 of bait for grayling but the fly. 



By the bye, unlike the trout, if the angler miss the fish once, or 

 even, as I have done, detach a part of its jaw, it will not be daunted, 

 but, pike-like, will frequently, in the language of the prize ring, " come 

 up again smiling " to its ultimate destruction. It 



Unabated will dare, 



Baulked e'er so oft the disappointing snare, 

 Simple and bold. 



The latter words of this quotation hit off its character to a nicety. 

 Therefore, if a good fish is suspected, rises, and is missed, persevere 1 



