OCTOBER 157 



upon the water, although but a sparse rise will induce 

 grayling to take the artificial freely. During the whole 

 winter on our southern streams,even on the coldest days, 

 there is usually some rise of fly, although the period of 

 the rise may be very short. In this respect, however, 

 October is a better month than either November or 

 December, although the writer has seen a fair rise of 

 fly between the intervals of snow showers on Boxing 

 Day, between twelve mid-day and two o'clock in the 

 afternoon. 



The tackle used for this class of fly-fishing is exactly 

 that recommended for trout except that the gut for wet- 

 fly should if anything be a little finer. 



As regards flies a very different standard must be 

 adopted than has been found satisfactory for the capture 

 of trout. In the writer's opinion in nine cases out of 

 ten a fancy fly will be found most killing even where 

 natural insects are being freely taken. By " fancy fly " 

 is meant an artificial bearing no apparent resemblance 

 to anything ever seen on the surface of the water. Thus 

 for centuries, at one time always wet and nowadays 

 occasionally dry, the Red Tag has been found the most 

 generally-killing fly for grayling no matter what little 

 alterations have been made in its tying materials or 

 name. Bradshaw's Fancy, Marryatt's Pattern, Rolfs 

 Witch and Dazzler, and a host of others are only 

 modifications of the old red-tag referred to by Izaak 

 Walton, " a fly made of the red feathers of a parakita, 

 a strange outlandish bird." From personal experience, 

 most success has been made with the Red Tag ; next 

 comes the Witch; next the Green Insect; next 

 Wickham's Fancy ; while occasionally a good fish has 

 been taken, especially in October, with the Pale Watery 

 Dun. 



In order to fish successfully for grayling it is 

 necessary to have some knowledge of the fish and its 

 habits. Although inhabiting the same rivers as trout in 

 many instances this fish takes up its position in the 

 deeper and more slowly running portions, and indeed 

 when in prime condition avoids the shallower and 



