246 ROD AND RIVER 



size than elsewhere. A fish of a pound weight 

 in the Test or Avon is thought to be a takeable 

 fish, and no more ; whereas in Yorkshire, Derby- 

 shire, and other districts, such a fish would be 

 considered of some account. The grayling attains 

 maturity more rapidly than a trout, but rarely 

 a weight of over three pounds. Now and again 

 a capture of five or six pounds is recorded, 

 but such fish as these are few and far between. 

 I have myself taken some few of three pounds, 

 but I have never seen any exceeding that 

 weight. 



The most suitable streams for grayling are 

 those in which pools and long gravelly, shallow 

 reaches alternate ; and the more bends there are 

 the better, for they love to congregate in the 

 backwaters formed by the latter. Unlike the 

 trout, they lie deep in the water, and rise almost 

 perpendicularly at the flies floating over them, 

 thereby often missing them. For this reason 

 it is more advisable, when fishing for grayling in 

 waters where the flow is other than sluggish, to 

 cast rather across and down, than directly up 

 stream, as the fly is thereby prevented travel- 

 ling too rapidly ; but it is. of course, necessary 

 to keep out of sight just as much as when trout- 

 fishing, so it is not always possible to adopt this 

 style of casting. There are those who declare 

 grayling-fishing to be an inferior sport to that of 



