52 THE ART OF FISHING. 



Carp should be fished for with a line some fifty feet in length, 

 done up on a reel, and without a pole. There should be six or seven 

 hooks on the line, baited with stale light bread which will float on 

 the surface of the water, where the carp comes to suck it down. 

 When they have taken the bait and begin to feel the hook, they 

 start off. Then reel up the line, playing them until they are 

 worried out and are ready for landing. When one is caught, the 

 others become very shy, and can not be induced to come near for 

 some little time. 



The Grayling. 



This beautiful fish, only in America, to be found in the waters of 

 Northern Michigan, is of a purplish gray color, with silvery white 

 belly, and small, bluish-black, irregular spots on the sides. The dor- 

 sal fin, which is very large, has along its insertion a black line, next 

 comes one of rosy pink, then a black one, and a final one of peach 

 blooming tint. Beginning at the sixth ray is a row of dull green 

 spots, then a row of fifty -six very small ray spots, and lastly a band 

 of dusky hue. The average length of this beauty is about ten inches, 

 but he has the strength and dash and gaminess of a young whale. 

 The grayling, unlike the trout, loves the clear, sandy bottom, where 

 the water is pure and not very swift or deep. They are found in 

 schools, almost beyond number, lying side by side, with those many- 

 colored dorsal fins waving like rainbow banners in a gentle breeze. 

 Make a motion or a sound, and they are off like a thousand flashes 

 of prismatic sunshine, only to return when the scare is over. Wade 

 into the stream above them, drop your fly into the water and let it 

 quietly float down over their pool. There is a sudden twirl, a wild 

 rush in the region of your fly, and you have hooked the prince royal 

 of piscatorial prizes. Carefully give him. the line, always keeping 

 it " taut," and if you have two or more flies on your line, the 

 chances are that you will speedily have a fish for every fly, and then 

 the battle begins. They fight desperately for life and liberty, and 

 it requires a,ll the skill imaginable to handle and land them. When 

 the " playing" is done and the fish tired out with their struggles, 

 they will lie almost motionless on the "water as you reel them in. 

 Slip your landing net with the greatest care under them, and your 

 triumph is complete. The prettiest and gamiest fish of the new 

 world lies like an animated prism in your basket. 



