ON SOME ODD WAYS OF FISHING 301 



in the bows of his craft, and, stealing along by the 

 edge of the reeds, plunges his spear at random in 

 the mud. He uses his spear also as the means of 

 propelling his tiny boat. I have seen four or five 

 boats following each other along the side of the 

 river in a queer-looking procession. 



Those centres of interest to the angler — the 

 iSTorfolk broads — are, alas ! the strongholds of 

 poaching. Norfolk anglers plead their great ex- 

 panse of water as an excuse for " liggering " or 

 trimmering to an enormous extent. Taking Nor- 

 folk anglers as a class, if they can " ligger " they 

 will. The amount of destruction is something 

 wonderful. The only time I ever yielded to the 

 temptation of going with a friend " liggering," I am 

 thankful to say, w^e caught nothing, and I am not 

 in a hurry to repeat the experiment. Yarrell gives 

 an account of four days' sport (?) at Heigham 

 Sounds and Horsea, where in 1834, in the month 

 of March, his informants caught in that space of 

 time 256 pike weighing altogether 1135 lbs. 

 What wonder that it is now difficult to get really 

 good sport at these places with rod and line ! 



My favourite fish, the tench, has a bad habit of 

 baskinof on the surface of some of these broads on 

 hot sunniier's days in weedy bays, where he deems 

 himself perfectly secure. But the amphibious 



