A CS AFTER OF ACCIDENTS. 211 



fish into the very neck of the pool, selecting the heaviest 

 waters for his battle-field, as a proper springer should. 

 Then away he sped through the breakers to the far side 

 of the pool, with the evident intention of taking a rest, 

 but, so as to keep him on the move, we gave him the butt 

 and held him hard. 



Here our troubles commenced, for in the act of winding 

 up line, the drum of the reel (which had no cross-bars) , 

 instead of remaining rigid, as it was supposed to do 

 until twisted round for casting, commenced to wobble, 

 and each wobble released from the reel two or three 

 coils of line, which the rod took up with a jerk — truly 

 a cheerful situation ! 



In spite of these vagaries the fish remained on, thanks 

 to the treble-gut cast, and was plainly getting a bit 

 done, when suddenly, to our dismay, the reel itself fell 

 from the rod-fittings into the water, fortunately resting 

 on the rock barely three feet below the surface. Holding 

 the line in the rod hand we made a dash at the reel and 

 replaced it in the fittings, but with the handle the wrong 

 way up for our style of fishing. 



This would have made little difference wdth an ordinary 

 reel, as it would have only been necessary to turn the 

 rod over, but it was exceedingly awkward in this instance, 

 as, having found that with a running fish the check of 

 the reel was far too weak, we had been supplying the 

 deficiency by pressure of the fingers on the drum, 

 which these new conditions rendered difficult to achieve. 

 Luckily the fish had no more run left in him, and we 



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