CLEAR WATERS 



the pike there ; I 'm pretty sure it has been stocked. 

 I '11 give you some gimp hooks when we go down- 

 stairs and show you how to fix a live roach on, and then 

 you can try them.' 



He was as good as his word, and next day I pro- 

 ceeded to carry out his instructions. To my delight 

 in a very short time away went the roach, and care- 

 fully observing the time limit for gorging impressed 

 upon me, I eventually felt the little Exmoor fly-rod 

 bending before the rather sullen excursions hither 

 and thither of what seemed to my callow experi- 

 ence a rather unenterprising whale. It was really 

 only a two pound jack (which I estimated at twice 

 that weight). But two pounds was two pounds on 

 Exmoor — very much so ! I had by this time acquired 

 habits of restraint and did not try to fling the pike 

 over my head, but our tutor, who had come to witness 

 the experiment and was not a flsherman, got greatly 

 excited. We hauled it out successfully, and to 

 shorten the story we (for my preceptor raised a rod 

 and joined in the fray) repeated the experiment 

 again and again till within the next four or five days 

 we had grassed about fourteen small pike. After 

 this there was a lull, of so persistent a nature, that 

 we turned our attention to wider fields of enterprise. 

 Some days later, however, I was sitting alone at 

 the same pond, fishing for roach with a view to 

 bait and another attempt at the pike, when a voice 

 behind mc called out, * Hullo, young 'un, what 

 sport ? ' 



Turning round I beheld a smart-whiskered gentle- 

 man whom I knew to be the son and heir of the great 



22 



