26 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



worked down -stream until they are under the 

 bank ; or, if wading, until immediately below. 

 As the best fish often take the fly under water, 

 it often repays the angler to let the tail-fly 

 sink to three or four inches, especially if a 

 bumble or hackled fly. He should strike gently 

 if the flies appear to stop, at any movement of the 

 water, and invariably before making a fresh cast. 



The grayling has been described as the " lady 

 of the waters," which title it well deserves. Its 

 quick, silent rise is particularly graceful, though 

 the elegant movements of the fish are tantalising 

 enough. See the quiet, confident way in which 

 it rises at natural flies, and then the disdain with 

 which it treats your clumsy artifice. It will rise 

 to within an inch of your " correct imitation," 

 even apparently take it, and then with a graceful 

 swirl return to its resting-place. The principal 

 English rivers in which grayling are found are 

 the Teme, Test, Avon, Itchen, Wye, Dove, 

 Derwent, Wharfe, Swale, Costa, and the upper 

 reaches of the Trent. In some of these, accurate 

 observations have been made of the fish in its 

 relation to trout ; though the question as to 

 whether the two species can thrive in the same 

 stream is yet far from settled. The champions 

 of the grayling contend that the question is one 

 of food. Where they are introduced and the 



