PIKE, PERCH, BREAM, AND ROACH 151 



in the pool below ; the gate slams to after the 

 cows which have come through it on their way 

 from the meadows to be milked, but after that 

 all is quiet. So still is it that you can distinctly 

 hear the swish and flick of the dace rising and 

 jumping at the flies on the shallow below the 

 pool. For fifty yards below there are large 

 stones and weeds ; then comes a swim of from 

 four to five feet deep between waving masses 

 of green weeds, and the swim has a gravelly 

 bottom nothing could be better. But even 

 here there is a little something to keep things 

 from being quite perfect, for below this fine 

 swim is a staked pool with pike in it. Why 

 they should slip up at times and upset the 

 fishing is only known to themselves ; but they 

 do this, and will, it is to be feared, continue 

 to do so, because it is their nature to. 



It is tight -line fishing here. All goes 

 remarkably well ; four or five half- pounders 

 are grassed, and so very contented is the 

 roacher that one or two midge-bites have not 

 been unduly noticed. Just as another good 

 roach is coming up, something white shows 

 for one moment, and the fine gut trace flies 

 up with a snick. That is a pike. "You 

 will shift your tackle and try for him, won't 



