140 ANGLING 



his morning's swim whilst the other chaps went down river to 

 the willows, and fished for chub, but fortune not smiling very 

 broadly upon them they sought fresh ground and lighted upon 

 a nice roach swim on the other side of the river, and although 

 it was then 8 o'clock a nice little lot of roach were landed 

 sufficient to induce a visit to the newly-found swim next 

 morning. On Friday the two early birds (Mr. Hopper is not 

 up with the magpies and proverbial lark as he used to be in 

 years gone by) were on the barbel swim between 5 and 6 

 notwithstanding a dense white mist which hung over the river, 

 but ne'er a barbel had they touched by breakfast time, 

 although they had seen several " pick " in the swim. This 

 determined Mr. Hopper where he would locate himself that 

 Friday evening, of which more hereafter. During the day, 

 under a hot burning sun, fishing was carried on under some- 

 what trying conditions, but "here there and everywhere" 

 including the new roach swim of the previous evening, found 

 the three men in the boat, but all to little purpose. Certainly 

 a few small roach, a few white bream, a fair quantity of dace 

 and one gudgeon responded to the invitations constantly 

 presented to them, but there was not sufficient sport to keep 

 the pot boiling, as the saying goes. 



In the evening McNab and Mazawattee took the boat to 

 fish near the willows, notwithstanding Mr. Hopper's assurance 

 that it was a real barbel evening. Their morning trial of the 

 barbel swim, however, had shaken any feeling of confidence 

 they might at one time have felt respecting the swim yielding 

 barbel, so they put Mr. Hopper across the river to fish from the 

 bank, whilst they went down the river to the willows. Mr. 

 Hopper started floating the swim, but as it had to be fished 

 about 15 or 20 yards from the bank it made it rather hard 

 work, so the float was unshipped and a ledger lead put on. 

 Ten minutes or so after throwing out there was an unmistakable 

 barbel bite, and Mr. Hopper either struck too soon or too late 

 anyhow not at the right time and Mr. Barbel went on his 

 way rejoicing. In five minutes, however, a real tug came, to 

 which Mr. Hopper nothing loth quickly responded, and this 



