AND HOW I HAVE CAUGHT MY FISH 325 



among professionals, a fisher who can put a bleak 

 upon a flight of hooks so that it will spin truly, 

 as it must do if there is to be success. 



It should commence to spin, not wobble, at 

 the very beginning of the draw. You can see 

 how necessary this must be particularly when 

 you are fishing in the weirs, amongst the piles, 

 under the foam of falling waters, or in a twirling 

 eddy, where the cast and draw is but a few yards. 

 In such places the fish are sure to see the bait 

 the instant it touches water, and if the hooks be 

 seen your labour is lost. 



The custom now is to mark the place and 

 time of a good fish's feeding and to moor your 

 punt above it so that, at the appointed time, you 

 may pay down to it a lively bleak or gudgeon. 

 You will need much patience and a cushion, for 

 it generally happens that you pay your visit on 

 a fast day or when he has his eye on other fish 

 that fly in all directions as he strikes at them. 

 Alas ! his movements are not near the fish upon 

 your hook. He has chosen to feed in quite an 

 unusual part of the hole that day. 



Should you be fortunate and get him on I 

 admit the skill that captures him, since the tackle 

 must be of the finest, and the fisher well deserves 

 his fish, even if he get more than one a month. 



Trout like the shelter of foam-covered weir 

 eddies. It was in one of those I hooked my 

 biggest trout, so long waited for, a fourteen 



