A REMARKABLE CATCH 107 



for four hours, while it towed my boat ten or twelve 

 miles, the strain on the heart was something to be 

 counted on, for if one is right-handed the strain is all 

 on the left arm. Some men are excitable and violent; 

 palpitation of the heart is the result; others again do 

 not notice it; but there are few anglers who are un- 

 moved physically by the play of this great fish. 



The angling so cleverly shown in the accompanying 

 illustrations was skilful in every way, yet the fish 

 gave the angler a hard struggle and he was more or 

 less exhausted, but not wholly on account of the 

 physical strain; there was a nervous tension, due to 

 the fact that the slightest mistake meant disaster, a 

 broken rod or line. But the angler won, and at the 

 end of about an hour and twenty minutes, several 

 miles from the spot where the fish was hooked, he 

 brought it to the surface, held it for a moment as it 

 threshed the water and tossed the spume over the 

 boat; then the gaffer slipped his hook beneath its 

 head and held it, and the little nine-ounce rod had won. 



A rope was passed through the gills and mouth of 

 the six-foot bass, then it was given its quietus, hauled 

 aboard, and laid across the stern. The launch, with 

 its flags of victory flying, then sped for home, where a 

 crowd met the angler and watched the hoisting of the 

 fish onto the Tuna Club scales, and the entry of the 

 record by the Weighing Committee was made — a very 

 solemn and serious performance, at least to sea-anglers 

 who do not particularly fancy standing up to be photo- 

 graphed with a dead fish, but permit it, as in no other 

 way can the relative size between fish and angler be 

 shown. This one-hundred-and-fifty-pound black sea 

 bass when photographed alone would look like an 



