GRAYLING. 159 



grayling rising, and then it may be better to fish the 

 dry fly. As a rule, however, I have done more by 

 fishing wet on these streams. 



Nor is the wet fly useless on the chalk stream. 

 Used after the fashion advised for smutting trout, 

 it is often very killing, but it is also very difficult. 

 In the slow current the stoppage of the line is hard 

 to detect, and harder to profit by. The ideal spot 

 for the game is one where you can see your fish 

 lying on a patch of gravel. Casting the fly above 

 it, you fix your attention on the grayling. Presently 

 you see him tilt his nose, swim up towards the 

 surface, and then turn to go down again. At that 

 moment you tighten, and with luck have him fast 

 hooked. Grayling do not, like feeding trout, lie 

 poised near the surface, but almost always come up 

 from the bottom to take a fly. Usually they make 

 very little fuss about it, and the sign of their rise is 

 hardly more than a dimple on the surface. Even 

 when one of them takes the dry fly the matter is 

 not very noticeable, and it sometimes looks almost 

 as though the lure had simply vanished of its 

 own accord. 



In one or two respects grayling differ from trout. 

 One is that they are not easily put down. You can 

 go on casting over a rising fish a dozen times or 

 more, and catch him at last ; you may even rise him 



