128 SUMMER ANGLING 



pounds. He is a rara avis of the water, I am 

 bound to admit. But my progenitor rarely failed 

 to capture the " sockdolager " of every dam or 

 " weir " above the tideway each season. He had 

 his own methods. Here they are, in brief : The 

 rod was a light red deal and lancewood rod of 

 some fourteen feet (he was tall) ; the line was 

 a fine strong silk one ; the leader was a six-foot 

 length of good stout gut ; and the one hook — no 

 gangs of ten for him — was a No. i Sproat or 

 Limerick. His bait was a small fish named bleak 

 or bley, similar to, but brighter than, a " shiner." 

 The manner of using this outfit was simple. 

 These large trout frequent the deep, quiet waters 

 adjacent to the rough waters of the dams or 

 " weirs," and there in some corner watch, in per- 

 haps twenty feet of water, for what they may dis- 

 cover. Now, above and some eight or ten feet 

 over these dams is built a beam as a bridge-way — 

 a single beam, without railings ; for the public 

 were not supposed to use it. Only danger-lov- 

 ing English boys would dare to run along its 

 dizzy path and gaze into the tumbling water be- 

 low ; the general public never intruded. This 

 beam always formed the coign of vantage on 



