198 THE PERCH. 



be worried with advice and suggestions from 

 superficial anglers I mean those who observe little 

 and note still less when they go a-fishing, and 

 think, for instance, that because chub, roach, or 

 barbel, have once been caught in a certain place, 

 they can always be captured there ; and that, where 

 pike may be caught in December or January, that 

 they will be found in the same locations in the 

 autumn months, which is seldom, if ever, the case. 



And so it came to pass that the keeper got 

 severely dropped on, for he stuck close to Francis, 

 who was carefully spinning a likely piece of water, 

 and he kept repeating, "You take my advice, sir, and 

 go to the top of the lake and try there ; a friend of 

 mine, sir, last March, caught a twenty-pounder, sir, 

 on them shallows." At length Francis, who could no 

 longer endure this reiterated advice, turned round 

 to the keeper, and said, " Confound your friend 

 and his 20 Ib. pike, and you too. If you don't 

 hold your jaw, I'll chuck you into the water." So 

 the keeper departed, and left us to ourselves. We 

 then got afloat, fished the central part of the lake, 

 and thence back to the deeper water, where the best 

 fish are almost sure to be in the autumn ; and 

 the result justified our choice, for Francis, who 

 was spinning low and deep, struck a heavy fish, 

 which fought so desperately for life and liberty 

 that it was nearly half an hour before we got a 

 glimpse of it, and then, from its dimensions, it was, 

 to all appearance, a fish of 30 Ibs. 



The boat had drifted, and I was reluctant to put 

 down the anchor, for fear of the pike (which was 

 now being played on a shortened line) getting 

 entangled round the anchor-chain. But we had 

 got so unpleasantly near to a pile standing up in, 



