INTRODUCTORY 



Fishing stories are commonly associated by facetious folk 

 with a measure of prevarication more seductive, it may be, 

 than downright falsehood, but no less unmoral. The fisher- 

 man is, by long usage, discredited by his neighbours, who 

 maintain that the truth is not in him. Yet so shrewd a man as 

 Pontius Pilate, having asked " What is truth ? ", departed with- 

 out hearing the answer to his question, and even the most 

 reckless exaggerations, of big fish caught and even bigger lost, 

 usually rest upon a basis of fact. This is no place in which to 

 examine the alleged imaginative powers of the reminiscent 

 angler, or to debate the commensurate talent for light fiction 

 in the golfer, horse-dealer, and other outdoor men and women. 

 To some extent, it must be confessed, the disciples of Walton 

 have only themselves to thank for this slur on their veracity, 

 since, instead of indignantly repudiating the charge, they 

 more commonly treat it as a standing joke, and take curious 

 pleasure in telling tales against themselves wherein whales 

 figure as bait, and other gems of mendacity are brought out 

 for inspection. 



Although there will be found in these chapters more than 

 one episode so startling as to be credible only to fishermen 

 themselves, the names of the contributors should be sufficient 

 guarantee of their authenticity. Little technical instruction 



ix 



