146 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



agreeable, not to say safe, for there had been a good deal of rain, and the 

 river was certainly on the mend, which might perhaps account for the 

 gingerly way the fish were taking, in spite of their activity in coming. 

 We therefore walked on under the plantations down to the Captain's Throw. 

 This never was a very favourite throw of mine. It is rather a sulky bit, 

 and wants wind ; and if you fish it from the north, then you have to 

 cast a long line some thirty yards or so right over to the opposite rock, 

 under which the fish lay, and having high bushes behind you close along 

 the bank, wliich is steep, one often finds them in the way. Then, if you 

 fish it from the south side, you are perched upon a high rock, and see 

 the salmon coming at you, mouth open, right under your feet ; and this 

 is so startling an apparition, as it always somehow happens when you 

 least expect it, that the odds are five to one you pull the fiy away. 

 To-day, however, the rising water seemed to have waked the fish up, 

 and there was a good stream on. 



I had not taken half a dozen steps before a lively twelve-pounder came 

 at me slap dash apparently ; but he had only made one turn round and 

 taken out half a dozen yards of line when he was away ; and so I took 

 leave of number three. It was cheerful. Ten yards lower I got hold of 

 number four, a good fish of 161b. or 171b., as I judged. He took to the same 

 tactics as my fish at the Mullens. As soon as he was quite sure he was 

 hooked he drove right across to the high rock opposite, and there he lay. 

 I pulled ! I rugged ! I went up stream and down stream. I couldn't 

 move him. Once or twice he gave a short, impatient shake of the head, 

 and then he lay still, with the tight line stretched right across the water, 

 and the thirty or forty yards of stream playing tunes on it. There was no 

 means of moving him. I pulled and pulled. I might as well have been 

 fast in a rock ! At last, as we were losing valuable time, I handed the 

 rod to Johnny and laid hold of the line. " Here goes for a mover or 

 breaker!" I said, and I put a steady and increasing strain on the line. 

 There was no shaking or jerking now, and no yielding. My mind mis- 

 gave me, when suddenly away came the hold, and, hauling on the line, 

 I brought to land the fly and a big lump of thick, tough rock moss 

 on it, and into which the cunning rascal had managed to rub and 



