244 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



the youth's arm, prevented a premature strike, and 

 4 Now you're in him, sir !' he exclaimed. 



In due course a fine autumn fish of 35 pounds was 

 landed and promptly taken back in triumph in the 

 cab to Carlisle, the whole incident not having 

 occupied an hour. 



The old fisherman who accompanied the novice had 

 never, in thirty years' experience, killed so heavy 

 an Eden fish ; and no experienced angler could have 

 hoped to accomplish such a feat in the time and the 

 manner described. 



But ' duffer's luck ' is not necessarily confined to the 

 young. There is a story of an elderly clergyman 

 who once paid a visit to a friend of his who lived and 

 owned a fishing on the Wye. This friend was an old 

 and enthusiastic angler, the one ambition of whose 

 life was to kill a forty-pound salmon. He had fished 

 all over the kingdom, had killed fish of 35 pounds and 

 upwards, even to 39 pounds ; but had never actually 

 achieved his full ambition. To him arrives the 

 ancient parson, a keen trout-fisher, but whose know- 

 ledge and experience of the nobler fish was nil. 



The morning after his arrival it so happened that 

 the host was detained at home by business ; or 

 possibly the river was not in the best order. Any 

 way, the inexperienced guest was despatched with an 

 attendant to fish the water by himself. He was 

 directed where and how to fish, and proceeded to 

 dangle his salmon-fly in a certain pool. As fate 

 willed, the fly was promptly seized by a salmon ; after 

 three-quarters of an hour's wild excitement on the part 

 of the angler, the fish was duly gaffed, and found to 

 scale exactly 40 pounds. But this was not all. The 

 now almost-delirious- with-joy guest proceeded to flop 



