204 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



Green, of course, in summer, but brown enough and bare 

 enough when we went a-fishing. A most jackylake ; the 

 haunt of monster Esocidce, and well stocked, too, with 

 giant perch. We are on the spot betimes, having come 

 down to the decaying little country town hard by the over- 

 night. The day is favourable atmospherically, not a cold 

 day, but a moderately mild one, as I have already said 

 I prefer for jack-fishing. Good sport is anticipated as 

 a certainty, and the result justified the hope. A huge 

 boat receives us and our impedimenta, rods and tackle, 

 solids and liquids for the inward man, and cans of 

 bait for the jack, fine lively Colne gudgeon and dace 

 which we had duly oxygenated on the road down. One 

 takes his place in the bow, the other in the stern, the 

 keeper with the oars in the centre, and hard by him a 

 friend of the anglers, my brother, who had come to see the 

 fun ; one of that strange but cheery tribe which, though 

 thoroughly imbued with the love of sport, prefers to handle 

 the landing-net to the rod, and to riding after a shooting 

 party to carrying a gun, regaling itself at intervals, 

 during the September day on blackberries, hedge-nuts, 

 and short pipes. The boat is moored in deepish water, 

 facing an island, and the work commences. Live baiting 

 with snap-tackle (Pennell's pattern) to begin with; 

 and the first bait no sooner in the water than a jack has 

 made too intimate an acquaintance with the pendant 

 triangle. Before he is in the landing-net another is on 

 the other rod, and soon both are safely in the boat. My 

 enthusiastic brother, who is provided with a steelyard, sus- 

 pends the fish, and records on a card, with which he had 

 thoughtfully provided himself, their weight, 4J lbs. and 

 3 lbs. He has assigned himself the office of the " recording 



