DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 81 



number or, as may well be, by a sight of the ever- 

 moving and overstretching rod. When the float is 

 nearing the limit of its journey I check it to give 

 the stream time to raise the bait and take it forward 

 beyond the attachment as it is then, and also when 

 the drawing back commences, that fish are tempted 

 most. 



Jack's beat that day included several deep slow 

 runs that suited well his style of fishing. He was 

 seated almost hidden amongst tall rushes with his 

 roach pole, a twenty-foot bamboo, which reached 

 beyond the belt of weeds that extended to near the 

 centre of the stream. His hair-line was of just 

 sufficient length to leave twelve inches between the 

 float a small porcupine and the tip of the rod. 

 The float was weighted with four small shot that 

 sunk it to within a quarter of an inch of the surface, 

 and, as it glided along the sparingly baited swim, 

 the rod followed without the slighest shake so as 

 to be as little disturbing as possible to the fish it 

 travelled over. A short-shanked, round-bend hook, 

 that was easily hidden in a pea of paste, was his 

 favourite, and no persuasion would affect his choice 

 in favour of the more certain hooker the long- 

 shanked Crystal. 



Jack's style did not appeal to Ted who, lacking 

 in the dogged grit to enable him to sit for hours 

 together holding twenty feet of rod, preferred to 

 roam with one that measured only twelve, fitted 

 dth upright rings, an easily-running winch and a 

 float that carried weight sufficient to be cast to a dis- 



ice or go long lengths downstream in search of 

 ish. His ground bait did not sink quickly, as Jack's 

 did ; it went sailing off to drop pieces here and there 



