IMPOSSIBLE PLACES 107 



to tuck the rod under the arm and trust to chance 

 while recovering equihbrium and a footing. Yet 

 the angler got both these fish. Situated as he 

 was he could put no pressure on them ; he could 

 not even keep the line taut. But each of the 

 fish when hooked came floundering and splattering 

 unresistingly downstream, trying to throw out 

 the stinging insect that adhered to his jaw. By 

 the time the angler was prepared to deal with him 

 the fish was in open water and was easily played. 

 Result, a brace of one and a quarter pounders and 

 the second lesson. The unchecked fish flounders 

 on the surface. 



What these two lessons have been worth to the 

 angler it would be tedious to relate, but one or two 

 instances may illustrate. There was that fish — one 

 and three-quarter pounds he proved — rising on the 

 far side of a dense bank of weeds in a channel 

 two feet wide. He had to be approached with 

 reverence on one's face, and from twenty feet out in 

 the meadow. He took the Pink Wickham at the 

 first time of asking, and the angler, having fastened, 

 dropped his rod-point instantly. The fish with a 

 startled plunge rushed up the channel and out 

 into the open water, and began to flounder. 

 Before he knew where he was the angler turned 

 him, brought him down the right side of the 

 dangerous weed-bank, and duly netted him out. 



Then, again, there was that black ^fish between 

 two pollard willows on the Darenth . He was rising 



14 — 2 



