110 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



found on cabbage-leaves. The artificial grasshopper is an excellent bait 

 for them : it must be sunk to the bottom and drawn up and down con- 

 tinually. When gentles or grubs are used, the sinking and drawing 

 system, must be resorted to. Sir Humphry Davy (vide Salmonia) under- 

 stood grayling fishing well, and practised it with great ardour in this 

 country and in Germany. I will quote some of his remarks on the sub- 

 ject : " The grayling lies deeper, and is not so shy a fish as the trout ; 

 and, provided your link [gut casting line] is fine, is not apt to be scared 

 by the cast of flies on the water, The fineness of the link, and of the 

 gut to which your flies are attached, is a most essential point, and the 

 clearer the stream the finer should be the tackle. I have known good 

 fishermen foiled by using gut of ordinary thickness, though their flies 

 were of the right size and colour. Very slender transparent gut, of the 

 colour of the water, is one of the most important causes of success in 

 grayling fishing. He is to be fished for at all times, for he is rarely so 

 much out of season as to be a bad fish ; and when there are flies on the 

 water he will generally take them : but as the trout may be considered 

 as a spring and summer fish, so the grayling may be considered as a 

 winter and autumnal fish. Grayling do not refuse large flies, [In March 

 and April I use these flies, the March-brown, the oak-fly, the silver 

 palmer, and honey dun -fly, the sand and cow-dung-fly dressed on No. 9 

 hooks] ; and in the Avon and Test in Hampshire, May -flies and even 

 moths, are greedily taken in the summer by large grayling. There is no 

 method more killing for large grayling than applying a grasshopper 

 to the point of a leaded hook, the lead and shank of which are covered 

 with green and yellow silk, to imitate the body of the insect : this mode 

 of fishing is called sinking and drawing. I have seen it practised in 

 this river with as much success as maggot fishing, and the fish taken 

 were all of the largest size ; the method being most successful in deep 

 holes, where the bottom was not visible, which are the natural haunts of 

 such fish. In the winter grayling rise for an hour or two in bright and 

 tolerably warm weather ; and at this time, the smallest imitations of 

 black or pale gnats that can be made, on the smallest sized hook, succeed 

 best in taking them. In July, imitations of the black and red palmer 

 worms, which I believe are taken for black or brown or red beetles or 

 cockchafers, kill well ; and in dark weather there are usually very light 

 duns near the water. In August, imitations of the house fly and blue- 

 bottle, and the red and black ant-fly, are taken, and are particularly 

 killing after floods in autumn, when great quantities of the fly are de- 

 stroyed and washed down the river. In this month, on cloudy days, pale 

 blue duns often appear, and they are still more common in September. 

 Throughout the summer and autumn, in fine calm evenings, a large dun 

 fly with a pale yellow body, is greedily taken by grayling after sunset, 

 and the imitation of it is very killing. In the end of October, and 

 through November, there is no fly-fishing but in the middle of the day, 

 when imitations of the smaller duns may be used with great success; and 

 I have often seen the fish sport most, and fly-fishing pursued with great 

 success in bright sunshine, from twelve till half-past two o'clock, after 

 severe frosts in the morning ; and I even caught, under these circuin- 



