INTRODUCTORY 27 



keen, he will have many struggles with himself 

 in early days. The greater the keenness the more 

 bitter the disappointment, and the more highly 

 nerves have been strung by excitement the more 

 likely are we to collapse under disaster. And 

 yet it is a pity, and a waste of good things, that 

 the loss of even the biggest fish should make the 

 other pleasures and successes of the day of no 

 account. In angling, as in all other recreations 

 into which excitement enters, we have to be upon 

 our guard, so that we can at any moment throw 

 a weight of self-control into the scale against 

 misfortune, and happily we can study to some 

 purpose, both to increase our pleasure in success 

 and to lessen the distress caused by what goes 

 ill. It is not only in cases of great disasters, 

 however, that the angler needs self-control. He 

 is perpetually called upon to use it to withstand 

 small exasperations. There are times when all 

 small things seem adverse, when the hook is 

 perpetually catching in inanimate objects, when 

 unexpected delays and difficulties of various kinds 

 occur at undesirable moments, when fish will rise 

 short, or when they feed greedily on natural 

 flies, and will not look at artificial ones. These 



