! 4 8 



Grayling-Fishing. 



assure the Captain that I have caught hundreds of 

 pounds' weight of living " tumbling " grayling with 

 the artificial fly at night. Moonlight nights are 

 the very best for this fishing with the small fly, 

 especially in a low clear water. If it is neither to 

 feed nor to drink that they are then out of bed, the 

 reason of their midnight exploiting and consequent 

 capture may be the same as that given by the 

 Folkestone night-fisherman to account for his won- 

 derful " take " of conger-eels. " You see, sir," said 

 he, "the conger comes up to the top on a frosty 

 night to look at the moon, gets nipped by the cold 

 and can't get down again." Though this moon- 

 shine theory, as it stands, would, when applied to 

 grayling, save only part of the Captain's statement 

 for in the absence of the moon the large flies kill 

 grayling as well as trout it could very well be 

 extended so as to account fully for all the facts : 

 thus, on a moonlight night grayling come up to 

 look at the moon, and on a dark night they come 

 up to look for it. 



The conditions of water in fly-fishing for grayling 

 are the same as those for trout, and the fly may be 

 fished either up stream or down. Many anglers 

 chiefly English prefer to cast across and down 

 stream, particularly in deep water, so that the con- 

 sequently slower motion of the fly may meet the 

 wishes of those grayling that rise from some depth 



