SEVENTH DAY.] BAITS FOR GRAYLING. 191 



HAL. The same. As far as flies are concerned, 

 these two species feed alike ; though I may say, 

 generally, that the grayling prefers smaller flies, and 

 the varieties of the ephemerae or phryganeee, of the 

 smallest size, form their favourite food. Yet grayling 

 do not refuse large flies ; and in the Avon and Test, 

 May flies, and even moths, are greedily taken in the 

 summer by large grayling. Plies, likewise, that do 

 not inhabit the water, but are blown from the land, 

 are good baits for 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 animal. 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 March, 

 the dark-bodied willow fly may be regarded as the 

 earliest fly ; the imitation of which is made by a dark 

 claret dubbing and a dun hackle, or four small 



