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Page:Caine - An Angler at Large (1911).djvu/67

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OF THE BEST ANGLER
49

too much sun; the water was two degrees too cold; the wind was wrong; the weeds were the very devil. Such fish as he rose he covered perfectly at the first cast, but they all came short, or the light was awkward and he didn't see his fly as it fell. Perhaps he got his hook in, but it was in too lightly; or the fish, a very strong one, went to weed in spite of all he could do to prevent it. He winds up with an explanation of the lack of fly or a dissertation upon weed-cutting. But he takes no fishes. Such—saving only the Marryat-like casting and the Francis-like knowledge—am I.

Chavender, arriving a moment later, pours out a brace of trout weighing four and half pounds. He can afford to keep silent as to his failures, of which there have been many no doubt, so he offers no excuses. He never offers excuses, holding rightly that if there is any blame to be bestowed it belongs to the angler more than anywhere else. Excuses only make incompetence more evident. To say that a fish went to weed is, in other words, to say that the angler was unable to stop him. And as it would be ridiculous to criticise the fish for seeking to escape, if criticism is necessary at all, it must be directed upon the fisherman. A complete reticence about these disasters is the seemly conduct.