Chapt. vi. The best tables always engaged. 95 



versal? "Why? Probably because you had not prospected 

 the place before you came to it, as I recommended, and 

 are standing right oyer it, before you were aware of its 

 existence, and have consequently spoilt it for all fishing 

 purposes. Whereas had you prospected, and stalked the 

 place, as I recommended, you would have shewn notbing 

 but the tip of your rod over the bank, and with a short 

 line would have dropped your bait in close under it. It 

 is time enough to try the run, and the opposite bank, 

 after you have tried your own. The opposite bank or 

 eddy is, in nine cases out of ten, more difficult to reach 

 than the one under your nose, and, from the breadth of 

 the river or run, frequently quite unapproachable. Do 

 not therefore neglect the eddy on your own shore. 



If you are often fishing the same water, you should 

 remember where you kill your best fish, for where one 

 good fish has been taken, another of the same size is pretty 

 sure to be found; the reason being that those fish who 

 lay wait for, instead of searching for, their bait, those 

 who stop in one place waiting and watching for what the 

 stream shall wash down to them, look out for the best 

 places, the places where the chief current of the stream 

 will carry the most food by them, or a favoring eddy will 

 bring it round to them, and there they take up their 

 station behind a rock or stone, so that they themselves 

 shall be in comparatively quiet water, but yet in a good 

 position for watching passing events, and as any food 

 comes by them, out they dart, take it and return to their 

 station. Some such stations are better than others, and 

 the strongest fish take the best. With them it is naturally 



