[Illustration: Hooking a lobster]
I have fished in every way,
Fished on every kind of day,
But my basket still remains _in statu quo_,
Not a stickleback will rise,
Not a gudgeon as a prize
To the quite amazing flies
That I throw.
When I try the purling brook
Many trout just have a look
At my fly, or at the minnow that I spin,
With fishy leer they squirm
Off, and my belief is firm
That I'd better use a worm
On a pin.
Wherever I get leave,
Still I fish from morn to eve,
Though I never--hardly ever--rightly cast,
With a body soaking wet,
With a mind intent and set
On success achieving yet
At the last.
In my coat of wondrous tweed,
And on every wandering weed,
Hooks and flies unnamed invariably I fix.
_Here_ I cannot land a fish--
I can only hope and wish
I may creel a goodly dish
In the Styx.
* * * * *
[Illustration: RELIEF.--_Piscator_ (_about the end of a very bad day_).
"Donald, hang the boat here a bit, we may get a rise."
_Donald._ "Hang!"--(_Giving way_)--"I shall tamm the boat if you will,
and the trouts--and the loch too!"
[_Feels better!_
]
* * * * *
[Illustration: Catching her-ring]
* * * * *
[Illustration: Deep C fishing]
* * * * *
_Q._ What is the difference between a dunce and an angler?
_A._ One hates his books and the other baits his hooks.
* * * * *
ENTHUSIASTIC.--That indefatigable angler, Trollinson, never forgets his
craft. Even in writing to you, he is sure to drop a line.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Catching min'nose on the bridge]
* * * * *
[Illustration: First instance of the cure of soles (_Vide_ Life of St.
Anthony)]
* * * * *
[Illustration: SUPERB
_Podgson (a recently joined disciple of the gentle craft)._ "Ah, now I
flatter myself that I played that fellow with considerable skill, and
landed him without the net, too!"]
* * * * *
[Illustration: "I'll punch your 'ead, directly, if you don't leave orff.
How do yer think the what's-a-names 'll bite, if you keep on a splashin'
like that?"]
* * * * *