208 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



Chap and Black Gnat both very small flies are usually 

 picked off by them in preference to the Duns, Spinners, 

 Oak fly, or what not, that may be plentiful. We have 

 frequently counted eight or ten fine fellows rising within 

 the compass of a few yards, while at the same time there 

 has not been another fish rising up or down stream. 

 Under these circumstances, it will be obvious to all that 

 great care is necessary in " playing" the fish, for should 

 the rodster land his fish in a reckless or clumsy manner, 

 his chances of hooking a second will be exceedingly small. 

 The best way to land a grayling, under the above cir- 

 cumstances, is to keep a gentle pull on the rod, and let 

 the fish bolt down to the bottom of the water for some 

 distance below where he rose, where he may be safely 

 bagged. Grayling may be taken in the latter part of 

 June with the Honey-Dun and Mulberry Bumble, Little 

 Chap, and small Midges. The rod, like the line and gut, 

 should be fine ; an ordinary one-handed fly rod, in good 

 play, is decidedly the best, as with it you will often feel 

 the fish in time to hook him ; whereas, with a less pliable 

 tool you will feel nothing, save perchance a stake or a 

 root. An hour or so at daybreak will, at this season of 

 the year, seldom fail to yield capital remuneration in the 

 way of sport, as, during the warmer weather, numbers of 

 insects fall upon the water in the dark hours, and are 

 taken by the fish as soon as they are discernible each 

 morning. 



For a week or ten days after the Green Drake has dis- 

 appeared the trout lie dormant in the deeps; until again 

 hunger-bitten they disdain small food, but after the lapse 

 of this time, they leave the stills and return to the shal- 

 lows and rapids. 



The Oak fly is really invaluable to the fly-fisher in 

 June, after the Drake season. This fly has the form 

 somewhat of a Blue-bottle, and the color of the Sand fly, 

 the body being more slender than that of the former, 



