164 THE BOOK OF THE OPEN AIR 



willow or in the shadow of the alder ignobly were they set in contest with 

 bushes. The capacity for profiting the diffident tench or the cunning carp 

 by the teaching of experience is by of an old pool. 



no means limited among fish to mem- As for tench, shall we ever be able 

 bers of the salmon family. Every to explain their long and sullen apathy 

 coarse-fisherman knows how educated towards every bait that is offered to 

 are the pike and roach of much-fished them, and the equally bewildering 

 rivers and ponds. avidity with which at rare hours they 



If worthy Piers of Fulham revisited seize upon the worm-baited hook ? 

 the Thames, he would find that since And carp those bellows-shaped 

 he wrote upon the art of angling, in monsters of the muddy, weed-grown 

 1420, the fish of that goodly river pond who shall say these do not call 

 have advanced in wisdom concerning forth to the utmost extent the angler's 

 the wiles of fishers. Leonard Mascall, ingenuity of brain and deftness of 

 too, who wrote of " Fishing with hand ? 



Hooke and Line," in 1590, would I recall how as lads we used to catch 

 assuredly discover that his tackle was roach and dace from the Thames 

 too coarse for angling in our day ; without much forethought and skill, 

 and fifty years ago a Dove fisherman and with the poorest of tackle. Thames- 

 asserted that Izaak Walton would open side fishermen assure us that there are 

 his eyes could he but behold the quite as many fish in the river as in 

 devices which are now necessary for those days of our boyhood, and I do 

 the capture of fish from that clear, not doubt them. Probably the fish 

 crystalline water wherein he used to are more abundant, for they are better 

 cast his baited hook. preserved to-day, and there is constant 



Nowadays the fisherman who would re-stocking of the water. Yes, it is not 

 excel in the outwitting of carp, bream the scarcity of roach and dace that 

 and barbel must needs handle slender accounts for my meagre catch of half 

 tackle and provide dainty baits. In- a dozen fish from that well-known 

 deed, coarse-fishing becomes a finer swim of my youth, but the scientific 

 art each year ; and there are fly- dry fact that the quality of the fishes' 

 fishers, with delicate methods and intelligence has improved during these 

 plenty of experience in taking trout twenty odd years. And so it comes 

 and grayling, who would be baffled to pass that I must fish much finer and 



