The Angling Excuse 41 



his creel be empty or no. Everybody who 

 has known him for a week knows of this 

 pretence, and he, being a fairly shrewd man, 

 is probably quite well aware that his excuses 

 and devices deceive nobody ; yet, curiously 

 enough, he persists in them, and probably 

 will till the end — so strong is the force of 

 habit. To the excuses of the bumptious 

 angler like the aforementioned Swellcast, 

 few will be prepared to lend an indulgent 

 ear, seeing that the man, when not in need 

 of them, will always be crowing, either 

 directly or indirectly, over those who have 

 fared ill at the river-side. But the ordinary 

 angling excuses — such as no fly, vile wind, 

 bad stretch of water, too many anglers out, 

 indifferent artificial flies, 'short-rising,' no 

 fish in the stream, glaring sunshine, etc., put 

 forward in good faith by the unfortunate — 

 these it were well perhaps not to treat too 

 scornfully, since one never can tell when one 

 may not be in want of several of them oneself 

 in order to explain away an exceedingly bad 

 day or week. It has sometimes seemed to 



