A SPRING DAY WITH * BOB ' 53 



how much more there was in fishing than the mere 

 casting of a straight line. 



On the reach allotted me I managed to get hold 

 of an odd trout or two here and there on the Snipe, 

 and a few annoying smelts on the gay Partridge 

 and Orange. Natural excitement, and too heavy 

 striking, undoubtedly accounted for the loss of 

 several fish, but I was having my first good time and 

 could have stayed where I was all day. 



Shortly " Bob " was passing behind me, well back 

 on the bank, and on the way to his next reach, when 

 he shouted, " It's time ye gave them a rist theer 

 noo. Come oot and strike in abune me." The 

 lesson he wanted to teach me was that too con- 

 tinuous flogging of a small stretch of water does 

 not pay. The trout get alarmed, and particularly 

 is this so in the comparatively small upper waters 

 of the Eden when a novice is at work. Since that 

 time, in the larger, lower Eden, I have often spent 

 a whole day in one big stream without unduly 

 alarming the fish. 



When I came out, and was following him, a 

 trifle too near his shallow side perhaps, he was at 

 it again. " Keep weel back, it's raither glishy 

 and they'll aither see ye or yer shadow on t' bank." 

 I have often wished since that day that some of 

 the fishermen one meets on the riy,er nowadays 



