PIKE, PERCH, BREAM, AND ROACH 147 



has a bad reputation for everything except 

 bream. A barrow-load might be caught at 

 this point ; in fact, that quantity, or very nearly 

 as much for it was actually carried away in a 

 barrow did fall to the luck of one angler in 

 the course of a single day's fishing. But this 

 stretch of water has never had any fishing 

 attractions for me ; whenever I have visited 

 the place, it has been for the sake of seeing 

 other creatures. Now and then I have caught 

 one of the bream, just to see what size they 

 ran to. You fix on your plummet, down goes 

 your line full twenty feet, then it rests on the 

 bottom, and you have your depth. Bait with 

 a nice lob, down it goes, and in about a minute 

 you see your float run on the water and go 

 under. 



After a time you land a shiny bream of 

 about the size of a pair of bellows ; and then 

 you wonder why you took the trouble to 

 do it. 



Scores of anglers to whom I have talked, 

 especially those who have come from London, 

 have told me that, although they have not 

 caught one single fish, they have, as they ex- 

 pressed it, thoroughly enjoyed themselves in 

 looking at things ; and this, of course, is the 



