HOW TO MAKE THE GKASSHOPPER 29o 



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 the 

 adjoining Plate IX. Mr. Wheatley, an angler of great ex- 

 perience in this kind of fishing, and whose illustrations I 

 have borrowed, recommends fig. 1, and its advantage is 

 evident. Fig. 3, on the same plate, gives an illustation of 



