240 AN OPEN CREEL 



perience, in which sport is not likely to be better than 

 in the reaches above or below them, but that is because 

 anglers are so fond of them that they are always 

 fishing there. Even in the foam of the fall fish can 

 acquire a surprising knowledge of hooks, dressings, 

 and gut ; but for a weir-pool to be no more productive 

 than any other given part of the river it must, I should 

 say, have been considerably harder fished. The 

 Thames weir-pools are hard enough fished, in all 

 conscience, yet they give a surprising amount of sport 

 to their many devotees. Nor can one wonder, apart 

 from that, that they are favourite spots, for they have 

 their own magic. The great river thundering over all 

 barriers to the sea, the thought of those mighty trout, 

 barbel, chub, and perch, which surely inhabit the 

 mysterious depths, the play of sunlight in the foam, 

 the faint, sweet scent of water-weeds, nowhere so 

 noticeable as near the fall all these are reasons enough 

 why one should love to ply the angle here above all 

 places. The open reaches are lovely and desirable at 

 their proper times, but to the weir-pool one always 

 returns at the last. 



