38 PLAYING A FISH HOOKED FOUL. 



mouth to such contact with the surface of the 

 water that more of that element will enter than 

 can pass out by the gills. These safety-valves 

 having lost their natural action, something very 

 like suffocation or asphyxia by drowning will 

 ensue. Your victory is then complete. 



When a fish is hooked foul, that is, on the out- 

 side of the mouth, he has his head free, and you 

 will find great difficulty in tiring him down. A 

 small fish so hooked will show more strength than 

 a large one fairly hooked. You have not got the 

 bit in his mouth, but are forced to manage him 

 with, as it were, a halter round his head. Give 

 him as much line as you can, bearing upon him 

 as heavily as the strength of your tackle will with 

 safety admit, and having no fear that your hook will 

 tear away, as it often does from the brittle fibrous 

 parts of the interior of the mouth. Be prepared 

 for several swift rushes of a fish hooked foully, 

 and do not bring him near you until you have 

 softened down his struggles. Use much patience, 

 and should your line, as it not unfrequently does, 

 get coiled round his body, hold hard and shorten 

 line, for you will now have little more than his 

 weight to contend with, the power of his fins 

 being impeded. I repeat again, eschew violence. 

 Always play with a light hand, making its strength 

 gradually felt in the ratio of the decline of that of 

 your fish, and so follow the killing rule in playing 



