CHAPTER XXI 



THE ROD IN SALT WATER 



By F. G. AFLALO 



THESE notes on sea-angling for sport are intended to be 

 helpful to the gillie. Whether they prove so will depend 

 more on the gillie than on the notes. His general 

 duties have been admirably summarised in the earlier 

 chapter written by Mr. Malloch. But the case of sea- 

 fishing is somewhat different from the duties which he 

 had under review. Sea-fishing is a comparatively new 

 sport it is not much more than a quarter of a century 

 old and has not yet been reduced to the same exact 

 science as some other kinds of angling. Among many 

 advantages it is at its best in those weeks of July which 

 precede activity on the moors. Now, gillies who take 

 sportsmen after salmon or trout know their work more 

 or less (occasionally less), and he is a bold man who tells 

 them their own business. I have had gillies in both 

 hemispheres and five continents : garrulous Greeks, 

 imperturbable Moslems, lazy Spaniards, independent 

 Yankees, merry Basques, blasphemous French- 

 Canadians, but only one Scotchman. He was really 



a gamekeeper, and he once as good as told me I was 



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