CHAPTEE XVIII. 



THE GRAYLING SEASON, 1906. 



HAPPY is the trout-fisher who, when his season ends 

 with September, has the consolation of good grayling 

 sport during the following months of the year to 

 beguile his leisure hours at the riverside. But 

 in many respects dry-fly fishing for grayling is 

 different and more difficult than for trout, for 

 grayling rise to surface food less frequently ; do not 

 long remain there in position sucking in flies ; but 

 more often dart up from the bottom now and then at 

 intervals, and down again, when, if hooked, they do 

 not spring out of water and thus securely fasten the 

 hook in their tender lips ; hence, if played too long, 

 or too masterfully drawn against the stream towards 

 the net, they sometimes give a peculiar twist 

 when least expected, and break away. The great 

 hindrance to the sport has been the scarcity of flies 

 upon the water, with one exception, i.e., on October 

 1 9th, when I hooked, played, and landed seven and 

 a half brace of grayling. On October 23rd, a gentle 

 south-west wind prevailed all day, and it was cloudy 

 with alternate sunshine : at mid-day as warm as 



