FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 59 



must be given instantaneously ivitli the rise, in fact if you 

 see a grayling at all near your flies at that instant a strike 

 should be given ; and it is from the great nicety required 

 to get hand and eye to act exactly together, that there are 

 so very few good grayling fishermen, and from the same 

 reason so many fish are just pricked and lost ; not as is 

 erroneously supposed on account of their being a soft- 

 mouthed fish (although I do not say that this is not the 

 case). A grayling when properly hooked is very seldom 

 lost by a good fisherman owing to their peculiar play, cer- 

 tainly not for every dozen trout. It is very natural that 

 the general belief should be opposed to this, because 

 without a man does acquire the exact knack of striking 

 grayling, he is sure to slightly hook and lose numbers. 



When hooked, they fight towards the bottom as a rule, 

 but it is by no means a very rare thing for them to spring 

 out of the water like trout, more especially those of un- 

 usually large size ; but in fact there is a variety of play 

 amongst them, although not quite to the same extent as 

 in trout. 



Small grayling are termed shot grayling, and from the 

 beginning of March until July no grayling over half-a- 

 pound ought to be taken ; those under that weight do not 

 spawn and are always fair eating. The rule with the 



