JUNE 16TH ?
The whole of our community is familiar with certain dates in the sportsman's calendar : with August 12th and September 1st. How many could tell you what importance attaches to the date of June 16th ? And yet vastly more people practise and enjoy fishing for coarse fish than have ever seen a red grouse on the wing. Coarse fishing is much the most popular of all field sports in England as in most other countries. In Belgium it has given occasion for one of the most curious laws concerning sport. Before the War you were not allowed to use the worm or similar bait for certain fish in certain rivers, except on Sundays. You might use the fly on any day ; but the man of leisure was not to have an advantage over the worker by enjoyment of the right to use the pre- sumably more deadly bait on working days. Some coarse fish, in my limited experience, seem to have flourished unusually this year. At any rate, I have never seen nearly so many dace in one familiar stream ; and they have been taking the fly like any trout.
W. BEACH THOM&L.
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