FISHING FOR GRAYLING IN THE AU SABLE. 



G. A. WARBURTON. 



The Au Sable river in Michigan flows 

 into Lake Huron after a run of more than 

 100 miles through a wild country. It- is 

 interesting to the angler because it is one 

 of the few streams in the United States 

 that contains the grayling, common 

 enough, to be sure, in brooks of Tenny- 

 son's land, 



"With here and there a lusty trout, 

 And here and there a grayling." 



The method of fishing in the Au Sable is 

 unique. The angler takes his seat in a flat 

 bottomed boat with his guide behind him, 

 to steer and steady the little craft as it 

 glides down stream. The paddle is sel- 

 dom used, except in the long stretches of 

 dead water, a steel pointed pole being the 

 most serviceable in the swift and shallow 

 river. With this the boat is both checked 

 and steered. My trips for grayling have 

 been taken about the middle of June from 

 a town named after the fish, located about 

 2C0 miles North of Detroit, where guides, 

 supplies and tents have been secured. 

 The upper waters on the Au Sable are 

 well stocked with brook trout, and the 

 rarer fish have been driven to the deeper 

 parts lower down. A war of extermina- 

 tion is going on, in fact. The trout is too 

 lusty for the more gentle grayling, and his 

 voracity is playing havoc with the original 

 denizen of the stream. Besides the com- 

 mon brook trout, the rainbow trout has 

 been introduced, so that the life of the 

 grayling in the Au Sable is a constant 

 struggle, with the odds sadly against him. 



Boarding the boat we have floated slow- 

 ly down with the current, taking such fish 

 as were foolish enough to bite, and com- 

 ing at evening to where the tents had been 

 pitched, on a high bluff from which a fine 

 sweep of the river refreshed the eye. The 

 distance by land is about 25 miles, but by 

 the stream 40. The sandy bottom, clean 

 and white, makes good feeding ground for 

 the grayling, and when a fish is hooked he 

 is sure to be of good size and in excellent 

 condition. There are few fontanalis here, 

 the rainbow and the gravling holding un- 

 disputed possession. I yield to no one in 

 my admiration of the trout : — 



"That gleam of silver, flecked with red;" 

 but the grayling fills my idea of beauty 

 even better. I have called him the Adonis 

 of fishes. Slender, graceful, with dark 

 back, bright silvery sides and white belly, 

 his great dorsal fin rises above him like 

 the sail of some little ship, and, over all, 

 is that peculiar iridescence, so fleeting and 

 so beautiful. His rarity adds a charm also, 



and the probability of his speedy extinc- 

 tion gives an air of pathos to his very be- 

 ing. He does not grow fat and ugly, keep- 

 ing always below the 3-pound limit. The 

 largest I have taken have not exceeded 2 



rm 



A SAMPLE CATCH. 



pounds in weight, but in them all the 

 lines of beauty that belonged to the 

 smaller fish had been kept. The grayling 

 has a tender mouth, and is not easy to 

 land in a swift current. He rises to the 

 fly with grace and with more deliberation 

 than his spotted rival, though his strike is 

 fierce and his fighting qualities not to be 

 despised. He lies on the bottom, and is 

 not a surface feeder like the trout. His 

 favorite places in the streams are those 

 that lie open to the sun, where sandy or 

 smooth, gravelly beds make the sight of 



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