160 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



once or twice, and then catch him. Also several 

 grayling often rise close together, and your fly may 

 stand a chance with half a dozen at once. I have 

 before now spent an hour over a shoal practically 

 without moving, getting an occasional rise from one 

 or the other as a slight encouragement, and at last 

 catching one or two as a reward. Where one can 

 see the fish one notices that one or other of them 

 generally just raises his head as the fly floats down 

 over him. This is practically a promise that a rise 

 Avill follow sooner or later. The best water for big" 

 grayling in a chalk stream is generally deep and 

 rather slow, but there are usually some on the 

 shallows too. 



A grayling hooked, especially a big one, is by no 

 manner of means a grayling landed. They are 

 extremely powerful fish, they know all about weeds, 

 and they have a maddening habit of getting off just 

 as one has the net ready to receive them. This is,. 

 I think due to the fact that they are often hooked 

 just at the corner of the mouth in a little piece of 

 loose membrane to be found there. This yields to- 

 a moderate strain, and the fish is gone. Even when 

 well hooked a grayling is very apt to go to weed,, 

 and there fray the fine gut through. The only way 

 that I know of to avoid this is to hustle him from 

 the very start. Taken boldly by surprise, he will 



