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nl)Oiit a liundred yards wide, and Ave fished from a steep 

 bank, some eijilit or nine feet above tiie level of the water. 

 After vainly striigoling to attain to the " Nottingham 

 style" — which all the local men adopted — I gave it Tip in 

 despair, and also abandoned the two huge " maiden" worms 

 in favour of a Devon minnow. But the local's style of fish- 

 ing interested me greatly. "With heavily-weighted lines and 

 large tapered floats, they turned their backs to the water, 

 and SAvinging their baits to and fro, to obtain the necessary 

 momentum, they suddenly wheeled round and sent their 

 baited hooks flying out to great distances, with a delicacy 

 and precision which astonished me. This was the style of 

 fishing adopted in the deep pools, the angler following his 

 float doAA^n some distance and then returning to the old spot 

 and repeating the process. At the tail of this deep pool the 

 water shallowed, and there a couple of men fished worm 

 with a hea\'y ledger lead, one of the men thus capturing a 

 handsome 31b. trout. It was all strange to me, for, whatever 

 may be my piscatorial sins, I have never yet caught a 

 salmon with a worm ! Going up to the head of the deep 

 pool, which was said to hold several big fish, I span dili- 

 gently, in the Thames style, but the difficulties incidental 

 to doing this with a whippy fly rod will commend them- 

 selves to all practical anglers. The day began to draw to a 

 close, no one had yet taken a salmon, and the prospects of a 

 blank were beginning to depress us all. The locals were 

 greatly interested in my style of casting, and the two men 

 below me invited me to go down over their water. In doing 

 so I got a heavy pull, and found myself fast in a big fish. 

 All the anglers gave up fishing, and gathered round me in a 

 crowd, and I doubt if I ever played a fish so badly in my 

 life. That wretched Nottingham reel nearly drove me 

 frantic, for I knew little or nothing of the mysteries of 

 " skidding " with my finger, as practised by those experts 

 who swear by these crazy machines. With a crowd round 

 me, all proffering advice, and several men importuning me 

 to hand them the rod, the experience was by no means a 

 pleasant one. The fish had got over to the opposite bank, 

 and resoiutelj'- refused to do anything except ru7i up and 



