Believe me, one of the commonest mistakes into which young anglers
fall is that of fishing in 'skipjack broad;' in plain English, in
mid-stream, where few fish, and those little ones, are to be caught.
Those who wish for large fish work close under the banks, and seldom
take a mid-stream cast, unless they see a fish rise there.
The reason of this is simple. Walking up the Strand in search of a
dinner, a reasonable man will keep to the trottoir, and look in at
the windows close to him, instead of parading up the mid-street. And
even so do all wise and ancient trout. The banks are their shops;
and thither they go for their dinners, driving their poor little
children tyrannously out into the mid-river to fare as hap may hap.
Over these children the tyro wastes his time, flogging the stream
across and across for weary hours, while the big papas and mammas are
comfortably under the bank, close at his feet, grubbing about the
sides for water crickets, and not refusing at times a leech or a
young crayfish, but perfectly ready to take a fly if you offer one
large and tempting enough.
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