13-4 The Camatic Carp. Chapt. x. 



this spirit of enquiry doesn't pay, and he won't take a fly into his 

 mouth unless its colours and its size and motion are so exactly 

 like the natural fly at that time on the water, that all his hereditary 

 and acquired suspicions about perfidious anglers are disarmed. 

 His motto is timco Danaos et dona ferentes. 



There, now, I am always prating about fishing with your brains, 

 and not by rule of thumb, and may be you will be sick and tired 

 of me, and shy the confounded book on one side ; but to my mind 

 it is so much more interesting to have an intelligent reason for 

 what you are doing, that I hope you will be graciously pleased 

 to pardon the seeming digression. Suppose, now, that you have 

 been missing rise after rise of our friend of this chapter, the 

 Carnatic Carp, and you cannot make it out, and you vary your 

 tactics and strike a little slower. Instead of there being any 

 improvement in the results your discomfiture is only increased. 

 And then you try back again, and you fish half-heartedly on no 

 fixed principle, but according to your vacillating haphazard 

 mood. Whereas, if you have accepted my reasoning as sound, 

 and have yourself seen that these fish take the fly just as I say 

 they do, then you fish like a man with a purpose. If you miss a 

 rise you do not deviate from your purpose, you only say to yourself 

 my fixed purpose must be still more carefully executed, my line 

 must have been cast just a little carelessly, not quite straight, or 

 it cannot have been kept quite straight as it should have been, 

 or that fellow was one too many for me that time, though my ball 

 was a regular bailer. Try some more of those. The truth is I hai I 

 not had a rise for some twenty throws or more, and I had got 

 just a little slovenly over it. Never mind, I'll take a pull on myself 

 and see if I can't be even with them next time. Next time you 

 have him. 



There are good fishermen that will be angry with me for all 

 this prating, I daresay, because there are good fishermen who lay 

 down points dogmatically, and their dictum is accepted because 

 they are successful. But I maintain that even the successful 

 could be more successful still if they would study the rationale 

 i.l' the tiling, and fish at every step mi natural history knowledge. 

 The best fishermen do this intuitively, and such would nut 



iiccept anything on the ipst dixit of the writer rely because 



it is set down in a book. They will want to know the reason 

 why, and tn weigh the reasoning for themselves. 



