THE SPINNING BAIT AND ITS TACKLE 131 



house trended down to the edge of the water. The 

 centre of the lake was filled up with a large reed bed, 

 and my friend, though an enthusiastic sportsman, 

 never allowed a gun to be fired anywhere near it. 

 The result was that wild-fowl of all descriptions came 

 there and increased amazingly. With great trouble I 

 had brought a few live-baits up to the lake, and 

 began the day by using one on float tackle, but 

 failed to get a run. Finally, I threw out the tackle in 

 a likely corner, laid my rod on the bank, and started 

 spinning from a boat, using as bait a ragged old red 

 phantom which had proved successful in a very much 

 larger lake in the neighbourhood. With this I soon 

 took several good fish, and quite retrieved the mis- 

 fortunes of the morning ; and all the while my live- 

 bait, which was swimming about in one of the pikiest 

 corners of the water, remained untouched. I thought 

 that perhaps this was merely one of those curious 

 coincidences which often happen to anglers, and that 

 no general conclusions should be drawn ; but I learned 

 from my friends that they nearly always found spin- 

 ning to be the best way of catching fish out of that 

 particular piece of water. 



Some years later I went to fish a lake in the 

 Midlands. It was many acres in extent, and in 

 ancient times had been the means of providing a 



K 2 



