22 Sporting Sketches 



many places of concealment, and sharp eyes were 

 necessary to discover lurking fish. If one stirred in 

 the shallows, it was easily followed by the ripple it 

 caused on the otherwise dead surface. The fish, as 

 a rule, moved about in pairs, or perhaps three to- 

 gether, after the spawning grounds were reached, 

 and we used to wade in search of them, examining 

 every possible shelter and keeping our eyes open for 

 any ripples. 



Most of the town and country blacksmiths could 

 tinker a grains with three or more barbed tines, and 

 different styles more or less elaborate were sold by 

 hardware dealers. We favored the three-tined pat- 

 tern, as less liable to make two useless fragments 

 out of a good fish too roughly struck. Many of the 

 young fellows prided themselves upon their skill in 

 throwing the grains a la spear, and a few, myself 

 included, after breaking a tine, would file off the 

 stump and the opposing tine and spear away like 

 good 'uns with the centre double-barbed point. 



The length of handle for the grains varied 

 greatly. Some were fourteen to eighteen feet long 

 and correspondingly heavy and clumsy. The " old 

 heads " favored these and did good work with them, 

 too, but we would have none of them. We didn't 

 care a button for the fish secured : we wanted sport 

 and to throw the grains at every opportunity, so we 

 secured handy sticks from eight to twelve feet long. 

 To such short staffs a cord was frequently fixed to 

 aid recovery when thrown into a broad, rapid 

 current ; but the simplest method was to throw the 

 spear anyway, and then to walk" right into the water 

 after it, in case it could not otherwise be recovered. 



