428 SALMON AND TROUT. 



THE GRAYLING, AND BAIT-FISHING FOR. 



Continuing my observations on bait-fishing for Salmonida^ 

 I come next to Grayling — the remaining British representative 

 of the family possessing any great interest for the sportsman, 

 and, indeed, ranking * with but after ' its ' star-stoled ' cousin 

 of the brook, Salmo fario. 



When grayling, or grayling fishing, is the subject of conversa- 

 tion among fishermen, almost the first thing one is sure to hear 

 is a discussion of the relative merits of this fish, from an angler's 

 point of view, as compared with the trout ; and a consensus 

 of opinion is usually at last arrived at that the trout is in every 

 way the more mettlesome and sporting fish, but that the gray- 

 ling possesses one unique advantage over him, from a fly-fisher's 

 standpomt, in that he is in prime condition when the trout 

 is out of season, and, of course, unfit to be taken. Trout, in 

 fact^ spawn during the late autumn and winter months, and 

 gi ay ling during April and the early part of May, when they 

 come up the gravelly scours in shoals, in this respect resembling 

 dace. The grayling has, moreover, the advantage of rarely 

 being so much out of season as to be unfit for food, or un- 

 willing to take a bait if judiciously offered. Sir Humphry 

 Davy, who has given us a very fair history of the fish, con- 

 sidered that it might be fished for at all times of the year, and 

 that when there were flies on the water it would generally take 

 them. 



As regards external similitude, there is, of course, no real 

 comparison to be made between the trout and the grayling, the 

 latter bearing really a greater resemblance to the vendace, and 



