330 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



been a flood, too, the weeds have rotted away, and the fish are to 

 be found in the deeper waters in search of food. On a rough 

 boisterous day in November or December the angler, whether from 

 boat or punt, is pretty sure of sport among the jack on any well- 

 chosen reach from, say, The Bells of Ouseley, at old Windsor 

 upwards ; and later on in the year I have had some of my best 

 sport when the frost has been so hard that the ice extended several 

 feet from the banks, and when, clad in the warmest garments 

 and hard at work, it was no easy matter to keep up the circulation. 

 On such a day 1 have seen jack take greedily, more especially if 

 the water chanced to be a bit discoloured, and the sun coming out 

 induced some warmth during the middle hours of the day. 



Spinning and live baiting in their various forms are, of course, 

 the recognized methods of taking jack in the Thames. I am not 

 sure, however, whether these might not with advantage now and 

 then be supplemented with the fly. In open water in Scotland I 

 one day landed thirty-four small jack of from 4lb. to ?lb. apiece 

 with the fly. If the fish can be induced to take the fly it has 

 many advantages ; no baiting (possibly with fingers half-frozen) is 

 required. The casting is as for salmon, and with a salmon rod. 

 The fish undoubtedly give better sport than when they have got a 

 whole flight of hooks down their throat, and they don't mind 

 coming back half a dozen times after being hooked. 



The rise, too, is to me a very attractive part of the performance, 

 and no bad substitute for that of a salmon. When the fisherman 

 seeks to lure the jack, winter has thrown her grey mantle over the 

 scene ; the biting wind sighs in melancholy fashion over the surface 

 of the silent river, and rustles among the reeds and the leafless 

 woodlands. Nevertheless, although the luxuriance of summer and 



