THE TENCH. 231 



me in a small pond in the grounds adjoining my friend's house I 

 have just before alluded to. Having been detained within doors 

 the greater part of the day by a heavy fall of rain, but which par- 

 tially clearing off to wards the afternoon, I ventured out accompanied 

 by a regular cunning angler to try which of us could catch the 

 most tench out of this pond ; which was in fact a mere moat in 

 the pleasure grounds adjoining the house. As my opponent was 

 known to possess great skill and knew the pond well, I considered 

 it my best plan to keep near him and do exactly as he did. The 

 water we found, as we both of us expected, exceedingly puddled 

 by the recent heavy rains. I observed that my opponent cast in 

 near a willow bush that drooped over the water, and very near to 

 the brink, and I did the same, fishing as near him as I thought an 

 angler could conscientiously do. He however very soon pulled out 

 a tench, not a very large one certainly, then another, and another, 

 and so he continued to do till a perfect torrent of rain, and the 

 half hour dinner bell put us to the rout, whilst I, though all the 

 time fishing within a few feet of him, did not even obtain a nibble. 

 A very short time after this I chanced to walk past the scene of 

 my former defeat, when the water in the moat being perfectly 

 clear, I could then distinctly see the bottom, and then I saw at a 

 glance how it came to pass that my antagonist had managed to 

 keep all the sport to himself. The bottom of this pond was com- 

 pletely covered with a small kind of green weed, except one small 

 space which was occupied by a flat paving stone, about a foot 

 square; this my opponent well knowing the whereabouts of, had 

 managed every time he threw in to let his bait rest upon it, where 

 it was exposed most temptingly to the view of the fishes; 

 whilst mine was completely obscured by being buried amongst 

 the weeds. 



In tench fishing, where the waters are so clear as to render the 

 fish shy, it is a good plan to foul the part of the pond you purpose 

 angling in with a long pole or a rake, in the same manner as for 

 gudgeons ; by this process I have often known sport to be obtained 

 on the self-same spot that had been angled in for several tedious 

 hours previously without moving or obtaining a single fish. I re- 

 collect, particularly on one occasion, getting capital sport by 

 adopting this manoeuvre, in a pond that was so matted with weeds, 

 that it was only in a few places round the edges a bait could by any 

 possibility be cast in ; and in all these, the water was very shallow 



