land. Landed, they take an eternity to unhook.
Some liar once said that the grayling has a tender mouth. Everyone who has since treated of this fish has repeated the lie. I shall not. The grayling has a mouth like an umbrella ring. Once your hook is embedded there it is almost impossible to get it out. By the time you have got it out the grayling is practically dead. But not absolutely. If she were, there would be comparatively little to worry you. You would only have a grayling on your conscience.
But it is June.
It becomes necessary to restore your grayling to life.
Therefore, while the great trouts rise all about you, gulping down the May-flies, you grovel on your belly, and nurse your capture back to consciousness.
You hold her head up stream and you wave her about in the water for several minutes, while she moves her mouth and her gills slowly, deliberately. Then you let her go. Instantly she turns upside down and begins to float away. Her eye meets yours glassily, reproachfully. Her martyred air distracts you. You scoop her out with the net and repeat the performance.
The trouts go on rising busily.
