46 Spinning for Mahseer. i'iiyit. v. 



salmon rod is the one on which I rely by preference, and I hold that 

 if you strengthen your rod by stiffening it you must necessarily 

 proceed to strengthen also your line, your collar, and your snood ; 

 and having done that, you are fishing with a barge pole and a cart 

 rope. You are substituting brute force for skill. limit < all ii 

 sport. Sport is the delicious triumph of skill. The man with the 

 barge pole gets very little of that poor fellow, and he has the labor 

 of carrying a heavier rod and a heavier winch than is really needed. 

 Give me the magic wand that promptly "stoops to conquer," 

 that is sensitive of every plunge, that aids me like a friend in 

 meeting it promptly, that works with me hand in hand throughout 

 the fight, almost speaks to me of the next effort of the enemy, 

 always anticipates me in foiling it, and when the battle is won, 

 draws himself up as straight as an arrow, and breathes again for 

 fresh contests. Ah well ! I have some dear friends among my rods 

 with many mutual confidences, shared with none else. They have 

 had as much to do with the killing of many a Hue li.sh as I have. 



They have had to do with it in more ways than resisting the 

 first rush. 1 have, after some play, killed a marral of some 5 or 

 G lbs. which had one hook pressing against a tooth, and not 

 embedded anywhere, and which dropped off as the landing net 

 took the weight off the line. Would such a thing have been 

 possible with anything hut a springy top I I have after a vigorous 

 fight in rough water shelved a Mahseer of some 5 lbs., as memory 

 serves me, which had one honk embedded half way up the barb in 

 the hardest part of the gill cover, in short, it was only pressing at 

 right angles against the bone, and dopped out as 1 took off the 

 tension. Who did that ? Not I, but m\ springy top. Once more. 

 In very rough water 1 hooked a Mahseer, which, after a mile of 

 exposure on a coolies shoulder in the sun, scaled, I see in m\ notes, 

 30£ lbs. in camp. Away down stream he rushed like a madman, 

 screaming out the line, though the basket boat was started after 

 liim as promptly as possible; presently he stopped, and the basket 

 boat, with its way on, overshot him. Of course I was telling the 

 boatman what to do, and he was paddling and I reeling up, all 

 we knew. In the heat of the action as we were making downwards 

 towards still water, where there was plenty of elbow room and a 

 bit of shelving bank, everywhere else huge precipitous rocks over- 

 hung us, there was a cessation of vibration, the telegraphic commit- 



