INTRO D UCTOR Y 33 



the fishing fleet goes to the Dogger Bank, not the Dogger Hole. 

 Where there is no food there will be no fish ; and where 

 torpedo boats practise, and big guns are fired, and large 

 steamers are constantly plying, it is hardly to be expected that 

 shy creatures will abound. But go to the right place at the 

 right time, and the sport may be simply magnificent. 



Never on salmon river or trout stream have I enjoyed more 

 splendid fly fishing than has fallen to my lot from Filey Brigg. 

 Sometimes so eager were the fish, that if one missed the fly 

 another was hooked immediately afterwards. It was simply a 

 fight against time and a rising tide. 



The enthusiastic sea fisher may claim for the sea the first 

 place in respect of the variety of sport afforded, but he must 

 admit that on its literary side it is a very bad second in its 

 rivalry with river and lake. From the time of Izaak Walton, 

 freshwater fishing has been the subject of a series of most 

 charming works, some of them in parts almost prose poems ; 

 and a fascination, I may say glamour, has been cast over trout, 

 salmon and some other fish, which will remain until English 

 angling literature is forgotten. Sea fish and sea fishing, notwith- 

 standing their national importance, have a very small niche in- 

 deed in our literature, probably because until the middle of this 

 century the coarseness of the tackle commonly used deterred 

 most anglers, so many of whom are men of refined literary 

 tastes, from seeking their favourite sport in salt water. But 

 the tackle was not the only drawback, for certain unpleasant 

 qualms, which Father Neptune only spares us in his kinder 

 moments, no doubt prevent many from sea fishing from boats. 

 For this reason I have laid emphasis, both here and later, on 

 the fact that there are in Scotland and Ireland, and more 

 rarely in England, wholly or partially land-locked places where 

 fish are at times abundant and the disturbing undulations 

 of the water almost unknown. There the good fisherman 



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