FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



Of late years, while the number of grayling taken in this water has greatly 

 diminished, partly, no doubt, owing to members of the Club not caring 

 to go down to fish at Stourbridge in the autumn, the average weight 

 of the grayling has been just about equal to that of trout : 



.(^gg ( 583 tTout, Weighing 1,1321b. 6oz., average just under 2 lb. 



I 37 grayling ,, 731b. 5 oz. „ „ „ 21b. 



247 trout „ 478i lb., average 1 lb. 15 oz. 



12 grayling „ 24| lb. „ 2 lb. 1 oz. 



1903 



On November 23, 1905, Mr Page and Mr A. N. Gilbey killed 13 grayling 

 weighing 22 lb. 15 oz. 



There is an incident recorded in this chronicle as having happened 

 to the late Mr Martin Smith, which goes to confirm the impression of 

 most anglers that grayling are not nearly so wary as trout : 



" 28th April, 1890.— Mr Martin Smith killed a grayling of 3 lb. 10 oz., 

 the largest recorded in the Club annals. He hooked it about midday 

 at Broken Bridge; it broke his cast after he had played it for three 

 or four minutes. At 2.30 he hooked the same fish, landed it and re- 

 covered his fly. The grayling was sent to the British Museum." 

 It may be observed that Mr Smith was transgressing the law in killing 

 this fine fish during the statutory close-time; but the sad fact is that in 

 the Stockbridge water, as in many other parts of the Hampshire rivers, 

 grayling are regarded with ill-favour; trout-fishers give them but short 

 shrift, believing them to be injurious to the trout by eating the spawn 

 and taking too large a share of the natural provender in the river. Both 

 allegations are founded upon fact; the first may be dismissed as of little 

 moment, for if grayling eat trout-spawn, so do trout themselves and 

 grayling -spawn also. Moreover, if more than five or ten per cent of the ova 

 deposited by trout in each season were to become troutlets, the fishery 

 would soon deteriorate and swarm with fingerlings. Of far greater 

 moment is the other consideration — ^the tax which the presence of 

 grayling imposes upon the common food supply. If a fishery, capable of 

 sustaining in good condition one thousand trout averaging 1 lb. in weight 

 be called upon to nourish one thousand grayling in addition, it follows that 

 the trout must either deteriorate in size or condition, or diminish in 

 number. Those who prefer to fish in summer will not incline to introduce 

 grayling to their trout water, seeing that grayling do not come to their 

 prime till summer is past. 

 158 



