122 CATCHING THE WILY SEA-TROUT 



As a spot of fat will go a long way, you will be well 

 advised when operating, to place some newspapers under 

 the jam pot containing the hot fat, so as to avoid any 

 adverse domestic comments. 



A friend of mine, a well-known salmon fisher, has used 

 this kind of greased line for many years, and he prefers 

 it to a tapered waterproof silk line. He says that a line 

 so treated, and with a breaking strain of sixteen pounds, 

 will hold any salmon, and he should know as he con- 

 siders a season to be poor if he does not connect with a 

 fish or two of thirty pounds. 



And so we come to the end of " Catching the Wily Sea- 

 trout/' but before finishing the book, I should like to 

 pay a tribute to angling. Should this work fall into the 

 hands of a non-angler I trust that, if he is not sufficiently 

 tempted to embark on the great adventure, he will, 

 by precept, influence others to follow the advice of 

 Genera] Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the 

 Allied Forces for the liberation of Europe, who said 

 to the British and American war correspondents on 

 I7th January, 1944, " I take it you are just as 

 anxious as I am to win this war and get it done so 

 we can all go fishing/' A grand sentiment expressed 

 characteristically. 



Some years ago, one of the chief officials of a Govern- 

 ment office was fishing with me, and he told me that in 

 his Department the average remaining life of a man, 

 on being superannuated at the age of sixty, was only 

 three years. As all the men who enter the Civil Service 

 are what are termed, selected lives ; that is they have to 

 pass a medical examination before appointment, I was 

 more than surprised by his statement. I have no means 

 of verifying the information, still I have no reason for 

 doubting it. But, think of it ; three bare years of free- 

 dom. Yet I can fully understand that a man, who, year 



