Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro [fisherman] can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous veracity, that the experienced angler is seen.
Source: Three Men in a Boat, ch. 17, 1889.
-- Jerome K Jerome, (May 2 1859-1927), English author; His warm, unsatirical, and unintellectual humour won him wide following, e.g., Three Men in a Boat, 1889.