THE NORFOLK BROADS 267 



welcome permission to fish a small private broad not 

 very far away. Here rudd were said to be equally 

 abundant, and far less educated by overfeeding. A 

 voyage of exploration was therefore undertaken. A fly- 

 rod was put into the boat. The attack was not to be 

 made that day in full force with loaves, heavy floats, 

 and the rest of the panoply of war, but if a fish or two 

 could be persuaded to take the fly, exploration would 

 acquire an added interest. By the time the broad was 

 reached the morning had turned out very hot, and 

 there was no wind. The boat was sculled gently round 

 about twenty-five yards away from the reeds which 

 fringed the sides, in the hope that a shoal of fish might 

 give signs of its presence. But not a dimple broke the 

 surface, and it looked as if the sheet of water were 

 absolutely devoid of fish. It was so shallow that even 

 a moderate-sized rudd must have left a wake when 

 fleeing before the boat. Indeed, like many of the 

 Norfolk waters, it seemed to be gradually filling up ; in 

 most places there was barely depth enough to float the 

 dinghy. 



I had begun to think very poorly of private broads, 

 when an apparent opening in the reeds caught my eye. 

 It looked as if it ought to lead somewhere, and, stand- 

 ing in the bow, I paddled the boat gently up to it. 

 Sure enough, it was a channel, and it gave access to a 

 biggish reed-lined pool of greater depth than the broad 

 outside, and in it a great shoal of bream were visible, 

 hurrying away before the approaching boat. This was 

 where the fish were, then ; if the bream were in this 

 secluded spot, the rudd would probably be in the neigh- 

 bourhood, too. However, there was no sign of them, 



