128 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



influence of a cigar after an outdoor lunch, and 

 should it have been preceded by good sport, maybe 

 you tell, or listen to, a tale. Now be it known that 

 Phil is my eldest son, and of such an age that he has 

 learnt that sixty-five may have many a tale to tell, 

 and he readily listened while I told him this : 



" I have put several sorts of rods and lines 

 together here, by the kind permission of the father 

 of the present owner, sometimes for pike that Mr 

 Keeper had failed to snare, at others for roach that 

 had escaped his net. Grayling can be caught with 

 almost any member of the insect tribe that chance 

 has made them familiar with : grasshoppers, worms 

 and gentles, are deadly baits, especially gentles. 

 Some years ago I was fishing for roach in the eddy 

 just above, while seated and hidden amongst the 

 rushes, handling a sixteen-foot, light, stiff, cane rod 

 that had a brown hair line attached with a small 

 hook that had two gentles on it ; to sink the lure 

 there were two medium-sized shot, and to keep it 

 at the required depth was a little bibbety-bobbety 

 float. Prior to making myself thus ready I had 

 cast in a pinch of gentles to whet the appetites of 

 the large roach that frequented this hole ; but from 

 what followed I could guess that the roach had had 

 no chance with them. The little round cork float 

 had scarcely time to show me it would cock with its 

 peg uppermost, as bibbety-bobbeties should, when 

 down it went, in such a fashion as said : ' This is 

 not a roach.' It was not. I had three grayling 

 out in quick succession and then got up to look 

 about me and think. I thought, and then put the 

 three fish back, not in my swim. Two swam away 

 quickly, but the first caught showed no sign of life. 



