GRAYLING, HAUNTS AND BAITS OF. 335 



dorsal fin, being very large, and standing up like 

 that of the perch, is a perfect picture, covered 

 with scarlet waves and spots intermingled with 

 purple. The little velvet (adipose) fin on the 

 back near the tail is also dark purple, and the fish 

 smells like a cucumber. At the season I am 

 speaking of grayling rise freely at the fly, but it 

 requires some experience and judgment to suit 

 their tastes. The heads and tails of fords with 

 a gravelly or sandy bottom are their favourite 

 haunts. They prefer rather deep water to shallow. 

 The grayling takes a maggot very eagerly, and is, 

 I think, a much more gamesome fish at the fly 

 than the trout. I have frequently had them rise 

 at my flies a dozen times in as many successive 

 casts. They are not so easily alarmed as the 

 trout, and many a time have I made half a dozen 

 changes in my flies, and cast them all kinds of 

 ways over a fine grayling, which kept conti- 

 nuously rising all the time, before I could induce 

 him to look at them. They are rarely ever taken 

 with the minnow. The grasshopper, when the 

 water has been for some time low and fine, is an 

 xcellent bait ; and I find the artificial grasshopper 

 much more killing than the natural one, perhaps 

 from the greater facility w4th which it can be 

 used. A little red worm is also a good bait for 

 grayling when the water is a little disturbed. 

 The spawning time of the grayling is the month 



