BAITS FOR GRAYLING 



tries the hold of the hook in every possible way, and from every 

 opposite point and direction of that hold, and usually hangs all 

 his weight on the line at the same time. Having a very soft and 

 delicate mouth, it is common enough for them to break away ; 

 and the bigger the fish the more tenderly you must treat them. 

 There are twice or three times the number of grayling lost after 

 hooking that there are of trout. 



Of course, the grayling rises best in the morning and evening 

 when the flies are about thickest, that is, during the summer 

 and autumn, but he will none the less, as I have said, rise all 

 day to some extent. In winter, the middle day fishing is the 

 best ; evening, save under very favourable circumstances 

 indeed, being comparatively useless. 



There are various ways of taking the grayling by the 

 grasshopper, by the gentle or maggot, by the caddis bait, 

 or by worm, but I hesitate to notice them, as the grayling is 

 such a sporting fish, and so free to rise to all comers, that it is 

 a disgrace and a shame to treat him like a poacher, with worms 

 and such abominations. Still, as in an angling book one has to 

 consult everybody's tastes but one's own, I suppose I must 

 give the information, or it would be considered an " hiatus," 

 though not perhaps " valde deflendus." 



The most slaughtering way of fishing for grayling is with the 

 grasshopper. The grasshopper, so-called, is not a grasshopper 

 at all, and though actually an artificial bait, in nowise resembles 

 a grasshopper : why it should have been called a grasshopper 

 any more than a gooseberry, which it much more resembles, I 

 cannot conceive. No matter ; this is the grasshopper. Take 

 a No. 5 or 6 trout-hook ; lap round the shank some lead, 

 enough to sink it pretty quickly ; over this wind Berlin wool of 

 various colours, chiefly green, with a few turns of yellow 

 or red, or both, until you have a thing resembling Fig. 2, 

 in Plate X. Mr. Wheatley, an angler of great experience 

 in this kind of fishing, and whose illustrations I have 

 borrowed, recommends Fig. i, and its advantage is evident. 

 Fig. 3, on the same plate, gives an illustration of a wasp-grub 

 imitation, made of a very light buff or dirty white wool, in the 

 same way as the grasshopper, which is almost equally killing 

 for grayling and trout. 



With as much line as you can conveniently cast and work, 

 pitch your bait into every likely place, particularly into every 

 deep eddy and swirly hole, working it up and down, sinking 

 and drawing with constant short jerks of the wrist, never 



