io8 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACE 



of a run. It is delightful, but it is not angling. The 

 most dunder-headed trout of the pool, at sight of a 

 silvery bait racing apparently for dear life half out of 

 water, yet never advancing, must metaphorically place 

 its forefinger along its snout, and with a leery wink 

 sheer off into the deep. 



The majority of anglers seem too readily satisfied 

 when their bait spins, whereas their chief aim should be 

 to produce a movement as true to nature as possible. 

 They spin too fast by half, not sufficiently calculating 

 the varying force of the streams, and I am convinced 

 that one of the most common faults of Thames spinners 

 for trout and pike is working too near the surface. 

 " Spin as deep as the character of the water will allow 

 you " will be found in the long run a wholesome rule 

 to follow, and, rather than keep on spinning in the 

 same water, it will pay the angler to cease fishing for 

 half an hour and begin anew with a bait as unlike its 

 predecessor as he can make it. I can never fully under- 

 stand the frequent admission, " He was a fine fish, 

 but he got off." The breaking away of a lusty trout 

 upon whom the fine line has been too heavily strained, 

 or who has been hooked with rotten tackle, is explain- 

 able enough. It is a natural consequence. The " get- 

 ting off " of such a fish is quite another matter, and 

 argues something, in nine cases out of ten, radically 

 wrong in the disposition of the hooks. You often see 

 three or four triangles so fixed to the bait that only 

 by accident can one of them get into the mouth of the 

 fish, and not a half of one deserves to get in. There is 

 no sense in having the hooks too small, and, if I may 

 venture to offer one more opinion, no spinning flight 

 for trout is perfect which has not a hook or hooks clear 

 of all impediment at the tail. 

 About the tackle and methods of fishing" for Thames 



