436 SALMON AND TROUT. 
method of using the worm, somewhat after the ‘ Nottingham 
style.’ As I have had no personal experience in this branch of 
grayling fishing, I have taken the liberty of quoting from an 
able article on the subject, which recently appeared in the 
‘Fishing Gazette,’ by Mr. Francis M. Walbran. 
The author of a ‘Book on Angling, observes this gentleman, 
makes the remark that ‘As the grayling is such a sporting fish, 
and so free to rise to all comers, it is a disgrace and a shame to 
treat him like a poacher, with worms and such abominations. 
Now, this may be all very well when you are dealing with the 
denizens of Hampshire or Derbyshire streams, where fly-fishing 
may be carried on almost into winter with reasonable expectation 
of success; but anybody who pays a visit to any of our Yorkshire 
rivers after about the middle of October will find that, if he intends 
to kill anything like a respectable dish of grayling, he will be 
obliged to have recourse to some other method of luring them than 
the artificial fly. 
My object in writing is to explain to those of my readers who 
may be unacquainted with it, the favourite mode of fishing for the 
grayling adopted by anglers in this district during the winter 
months, and which is termed by them ‘swimming the worm.’ As 
regards sport, I consider it little inferior to clear-water worm 
fishing for trout, and I venture to predict that any angler who may 
try his hand at it and become an adept, will come to the conclusion 
that it is equally a scientific amusement. 
The weather ought to be bright and frosty, with the water low 
and clear, to ensure success in this fishing. Melted snow or 
‘broth,’ as it is called, immediately spoils sport, and if the rivers 
are at all flooded through rain, you are unable to get to the places 
where grayling usually frequent, and, in addition to that, they never 
feed really well in either a rising or falling state of the water. 
The rod should be about eleven feet in length, light, and in- 
clined rather to stiffness, but not too much so. An ebonite check 
reel, with a fine braided waterproofed line, completes that portion 
of your equipment, so we will now pass on to the tackle, then to 
the consideration of bait, and finish up with a description of the 
modus operandi, j 
Prepare a cast three yards in length, tapering down to the 
finest drawn gut procurable, and on this wrap with red silk a No. 4 
fine wire round-bend hook, with a piece of stiff bristle projecting 
