LATE OCTOBER GRAYLING FIStflNG. 237 



Sometimes, after wandering up or down half 

 the water, one comes upon a turn or a pool in 

 which a handsome couple are rising enchantingly. 

 If you do not succeed in getting one with the 

 first few casts, they may afford an hour's 

 strenuous sport before they have finished with 

 you. And what is more, if you are thoroughly 

 beaten, there is the added dissatisfaction of 

 knowing that a more suitable fly, or a better 

 style of casting at the right moment, would have 

 turned the tables. 



Never leave a pool of rising grayling because 

 you fancy that in some other part of the river 

 there are better fish. 



As likely as not you lose the bone for the 

 shadow, and find that the coveted spot has been 

 deserted. If it be November, take what the 

 Gods send you and be thankful, for at any 

 time of the day a nasty cold wind may spring 

 up and handicap your chances badly. An 

 excellent fly to put up thus late in the year is 

 Bradshaw's Fancy; its straggly form seemingly 

 corresponds to the shape of some rare insect 

 whose figure has been disarranged by gusty 

 weather. It is a fly which grayling are more 

 likely to follow a foot or two downstream than 

 any other I know. 



Only this last season I had two fortunate 

 week-ends late in October. Nearly everything 

 in the way of tackle was new : a new reel with 

 no adjustable check : a new double-tapered line 

 which had not lost its stiffness; and above all 

 some new eighteen inch points of so-called 6x 



