132 ANGLING 



extent that it was deemed prudent to put a certain amount of 

 restraint on his movements, with a view to his liver having- an 

 opportunity of recovering as far as possible its originally 

 normal condition. 



Mr. Hopper will now dismiss Mr. Daily Pint from his notes 

 and pass on to topics and incidents which are probably more to 

 the taste of Grimsby anglers. Did any of the latter read about 

 two months ago in the columns of the Sportsman of that 

 wonderful struggle of five and a half hour's duration of Mr. 

 Underbrook with a mighty carp of the estimated weight of 

 25 pounds ? The locus in quo was Croxby Pond. It is well 

 known that big carp are the most shy and suspicious fish that 

 swim in the lakes and ponds of England. Mr. Underbrook's 

 experience was a peculiar one, and, no doubt, he now feels that 

 he can honestly say 



" Of all the fish that swim the watery mead, 

 Not one in cunning can the carp exceed." 



Mr. Underbrook is a cute and determined angler of the most 

 persistent and dogged sort. He knows full well from his 

 previous experience in carp fishing that coarse tackle is useless 

 in angling for so wary a gentleman as the Cyprimus Carpio. 

 No ! Mr. Underbrook is a knowing card, and he bears in mind 

 the following lines : 



The carp whose wary eye, 

 Admits no vulgar tackle nigh, 

 Essay your art's supreme address, 

 And beat the fox in sheer finesse. 



Mr. Underbrook has a large stock of patience, as the readers 

 of these notes will admit, when they learn that for five and a 

 half hours he used every artifice he could think of to land the 

 twenty-five pounder, even going into the mud (and there is 

 some mud in Croxby Pond) up to his waist, but all to no 

 purpose, for Mr. Carp eventually, after this abnormally long 

 struggle, managed to get the gut trace across his huge back fin 

 and severed it in two. Truly might Mr. Underbrook ejaculate 

 in his own righteous way, and say that the title of the " Water 

 Fox " was well earned by this cunning and sagacious species of 

 fish. Mr. Hopper offers his piscatorial condolence to Mr. 

 Underbrook for the loss of this grand fish after so lengthy a 



