

Introductory 7 



" a puir creetur, sir, a puir creetur," as old 

 Carlyle once snapped out to a man who 

 had irritated him beyond bearing. Gillies 

 (especially those connected with a fishing 

 hotel) are especially guilty; but if their 

 patrons had a higher sense of honour the 

 evil would not exist. Hotel-keepers also 

 have their own temptation, and I regret 

 to add that the reports sent to newspapers 

 are frequently quite unreliable. The com- 

 monest of all forms of deception is the 

 placing of the united "takes" of two or 

 more anglers to the credit of one. Naturally 

 men rush to waters where such individual 

 (?) takes are still possible only to find that 

 they have been deceived. When Anthony 

 Trollope visited Australia (many years ago) 

 he discovered that the colonist had a like 

 failing, and in his book his advice to him 

 runs thus : " Don't blow." 



I think if there was less " blow " (or 

 brag) amongst fishermen, veracity would 

 reassert itself; and the stigma, which now 

 rests on fishermen, would gradually die 

 a natural death. Much of it is done in 

 joke, doubtless ; but in most cases the love 

 of bragging is at the root of the disease. 



Be a truthful duffer if a duffer and 

 you will enjoy your sport in youth, and 



