The Angling Excuse 39 



wrote letters, and had lunch. He will never 

 honestly confess that he has been fishing 

 hard all day, being mad to get a dish of 

 trout and crow over all the other anglers 

 on the water ; though you may know per- 

 fectly well that such has been his little 

 game. 



Different anglers cultivate different kinds 

 of excuses. One, for instance, almost in- 

 variably tells you that he turned in early in 

 the afternoon and had a long sleep ; while 

 another broke the top of his rod just as the 

 rise of the day was commencing, and, having 

 no twine, was unable to mend it in time to 

 fill his creel, which, of course, he could have 

 done with ease had it not been for this 

 curious bit of bad luck. A very common 

 excuse is that there was absolutely no fly 

 and no fish moving all day long on the 

 particular stretch of water on which the 

 troutless angler was fishing ; sometimes, 

 however, this excuse is made in perfect sin- 

 cerity by anglers who are not ashamed of, 

 but merely puzzled by, their want of success. 



