GRAYLING FISHING.
GRAYLING have one advantage over trout in that they extend your fishing
season by at least three months. Whereas trout may be called spring
and summer fish, grayling are autumn and winter fish. While trout
love positions under overhanging banks, or in the side runs by the
bank side, grayling, on the other hand, generally occupy positions in
mid-stream, lying near, or on, the bottom. In rivers that contain both
fish, a bank rise may be generally put down to a trout. I would have
substituted the word "confidently" for "generally," had not a very
competent critic placed a marginal note to my MS., stating that "he
would it were so."
I can well recall a day on lower Testwater when, in October, on a
wild, squally day, with gusty rain, I was endeavouring to beguile some
imprudent grayling into taking my fly. The river keeper accompanied
me, and together we descried a nice dimpling rise against the far
bank, above a plank bridge. I at once put it down as a trout, and was
for leaving it alone; but my keeper friend would not have it so, and
on persuasion I proffered the fish the fly that happened to be on my
line. As luck would have it the fly pitched fairly accurately, and,
nicely cocked, sailed down the bank side just where the rise had been.
A confident rise produced an equally confident turn of the wrist; our
friend was well hooked, and a merry five minutes we had before he
could be beguiled into the landing net. He proved to be a fine trout,
over 3 lb. in weight and in magnificent condition, but the month was
against us, and we had to replace him with all due care in his native
element before resuming our search for the grayling, who were not at
all inclined to favour us, on that occasion at any rate.
This particular fish certainly endorsed my view, for I felt confident
in my first opinion, viz., that it was the rise of a trout, and not
that of a grayling. The keeper, however, was equally confident until he
was proved wrong, and, as his experiences were a hundredfold greater
than mine, I would certainly not attempt to advance my own as against
his. It is so terribly easy to generalise from inadequate experience.
One thing I certainly have learned with regard to grayling fishing
with a hackle fly, fished wet and up stream, and that is, how easily
one may miss them through want of rapidity in the strike. I remember a
friend of mine dancing with laughter on the river bank as he watched me
miss rise after rise under such circumstances. I seemed to be always a
little after the fair. It was blind kind of work, casting at the rises,
the fish having to come up from the bottom to the fly, and somehow
or other they seemed always to take the wrong psychological moment
for their rise as far as I was concerned. Occasionally, of course, I
hooked what I fancied to be a silly idiot of a fish, and it was not
until my friend had a turn at them and then declared they were rising
disgracefully short that I was able to turn the laugh against him. When
I was angling it was always the fault of the angler that the fish were
not hooked; when his turn came it was entirely the fault of the fish.
At the same time it is undeniable that to secure grayling, especially
heavy ones, by this manner of angling requires great alertness, and, as
it were, sympathy of touch in hooking them.
I cannot pretend to any considerable experiences in grayling fishing,
but I do not agree with Mr. G. A. B. Dewar, who, in his "Book of
the Dry Fly," p. 54 (Lawrence & Bullen, 1897), states confidently
that angling for the grayling with the dry fly is "poor fun." On the
contrary, I have found him a bold riser, and a really free fighter
in his own style. He will take a dry fly in hot, bright weather,
though his real value comes in on frosty days, after the trout have
earned their well-deserved rest from the plague of artificial flies. A
grayling, moreover, is in his element in deep pools and quiet hollows,
where one would hardly expect to see the dimple of a rising trout. At
the same time the fish loves rapid streams and shallows, retiring for
rest to the deeper pools.
To be absolutely candid, I would always prefer to fish for trout
rather than to fish for grayling. This may possibly be through lack
of experience and opportunity; but no one can gainsay the fact that
grayling are in condition when trout are not, that they are a worthy
quarry and gamesome, despite (Brother) Cotton's condemnation of them as
"dead-hearted" fish. To be able to defer putting away one's favourite
rods until October, November, and even December have passed away is
no mean advantage, and I, for one, would be indeed sorry to decry the
grayling in any way whatever.
Grayling do not, as a rule, rise as freely as trout will do during
heavy rain, nor does muggy weather suit them; the best time for
grayling fishing in late autumn or early winter is from about twelve
to two, on a bright day, after a sharp and crisp frost. As they lie so
low in the water and have to come to the surface to take a fly, they
frequently miss their object, whether real or artificial; and after
they have taken the fly, or missed it, as the case may be, they dive
downwards to the bottom again, often breaking the water with their
forked tails in so doing. They are, therefore, more easy of approach
than trout, as there is a larger intervening amount of water to screen
you. As they take surface food, and yet lie so deep, their quaint
lozenge-shaped eyes have an upward turn. They are peculiarly gut shy,
and any undue coarseness in this respect or glistening glare in your
cast will effectually choke them off from their intended rise. They may
be taken by almost any of the ordinary surface flies, by a red tag, or
by means of many of the pale watery hackle flies fished wet. The depth
of the water in which they love to lie renders them less susceptible to
continued flogging than trout. Remember, if you hook a good grayling,
that the corners of his mouth are very tender compared with those of a
trout, and that, salmon-like, he takes a header downwards after taking
your fly, thus tending to hook himself; therefore the quickest and
gentlest of wrist turns is sufficient to cement the attachment between
you. And although grayling fishermen will not admit that the mouth of a
grayling is more tender, generally speaking, than that of a trout, it
is extraordinary how often the fly happens to attach itself to those
particularly tender spots. In playing him, this fact should not be
forgotten, nor the fact that the appearance of the landing net seems to
produce in him the wildest and most frantic efforts for freedom.
Grayling receive universal condemnation for poaching trout and salmon
ova, and it is only right to own that they are grave delinquents in
this respect. The unfortunate ova have, however, a multitude of enemies
in the shape of various water birds, ducks, swans, &c., and the toll
taken by the grayling in proportion cannot be so very heavy after
all, or they would not be permitted to continue to populate our south
country streams, where the trout is the chief object of worship. At any
rate, they have no other cannibal proclivities, which is more than can
be said for the noble trout himself, who is a marked sinner in both
respects.
Grayling will not thrive in all streams; they love alternate shallows
and deeps, and are particularly partial to quiet backwaters. They
are very migratory, and will frequently shift their quarters. The
character of the river appears to be all-important in their case, and
many streams suitable for trout will not hold grayling. But where the
surrounding circumstances are suitable, and the temperature of the
water is neither too cold nor too hot, it seems a pity that they should
not be given a trial. They spawn in April, and recover their condition
more rapidly than trout. I do not know whether the origin of these
fish in British waters has ever been ascertained. They may have been
brought to these islands by the monks in former time, who so carefully
husbanded all resources in the shape of fish food; but I have never
seen or read any authentic statement to this effect, and would prefer
to consider them as indigenous.
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[Illustration: LUNCHEON.]