DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 169 



for a time, my efforts in that direction, but, when- 

 ever I looked into a window filled with a seemingly 

 endless variety of Sheffield goods, that brightly 

 glistened, the spoon and phantom idea came back 

 to be thought much of again. It was while gazing 

 in a window decked out with these shining goods 

 that an idea came which caused me, Irish-like, to 

 scratch my head to encourage it to continue its 

 line of thought. How long I kept up the encour- 

 agement I cannot say, but it answered, and I said 

 aloud: " By Jumbo, I have it!" A spectator's 

 smile made me take my fingers from my head and 

 hurry off, but with the Spoon and Phantom as good 

 as made, and since then many a grand fish has 

 fallen a victim to it. 



THE SPOON PHANTOM 



It was a Glen Lyon gillie that prompted me to 

 make quite a new departure in my search for the 

 perfect minnow ; he had persuaded himself that the 

 salmon's desire to get at the head of what they 

 seized was an indication that if the bait spun back- 

 wards it would be irresistible to a coming fish, and, 

 as the logic seemed good, I spent odd hours 

 enough, before the next season came, to build a 

 hut, in producing a bait which he thought, at first 

 sight, perfect. When the time came to try it I had 

 fruitlessly spun a Phantom and a Spiral in Long 

 Ladder Pool where there were several fish to be 



