CHAPT. VI. Uh a Pliable Bod. 81 



II and V. As the bait is on the point of tailing into the water it 

 should be just t *« -It with the top ever so slightly, so aa to make il 



fall lightly and noiselessly. To do this well in a long throw is a 

 delicate operation, requiring, to my mind, a very great deal more 



skill than is needed for casting a By lightly for trout. I do not 

 hesitate to say that it is a very much higher art to spin well in this 

 fashion than to cast a By well, whether for trout or salmon. 

 Besides the casting, there is also so much more room for skill, in 

 the life-like management of the bait in the water, than is needed 

 for the right handling of the fly. But the wry difficulty makes 

 the skilful accomplishment all the more pleasurable. 



For such throwing the bait must, as I have said, lie light. If 

 you use a fish you are somewhat restricted in size ; sinker included, 

 you cannot well swing a fish more than six inches long without 

 straining your top. The lightness of the phantom minnow and 

 spoon allows of their being used much larger. 



It will he found convenient to hold the rod with one or more 

 fingers of the upper hand above the running line, and the other 

 fingers below it; when swinging the bait for a throw, close the 

 upper finger on the running line to prevent its being jerked out, 

 when spinning take it off, so that the line may be perfectly free to 

 run out the instant a fish strikes. 



If fishermen would spin in this manner they would not he so 

 wedded to stiff trolling rods for Mahseer fishing. It is because 

 they have been told that they must spin for Mahseer as for 1'ike, 

 that they have taken to a thing like a Pike rod, and then, finding 

 they have a much finer foe than a Pike to tight with, they have had 

 their tackle broken, as was to be expected, and have put down 

 the breaking to the fish, instead of to their using the wrong rod, or 

 rather spinning wrongly so as to compel them to use the wrong rod. 



I daresay you will tell me I have said this more than once 

 already in different words. I don't care. I shall say it again. 

 Other fellows have been preaching the barge-pole ami cable theory 

 so frequently, and so positively, with all the force of men of 

 experience, thai everj body lias taken to believing them, you among 

 them. Confess it. Every letter to the "Field" about Mahseer 

 preaches this one doctrine, and now it is my turn to have a nag at 

 you, and it is for your good, dear reader. " Doon " is the one only 

 writer who has lifted up his voice against barge poles, cables, and 



THE ROD I.N INDIA. O 



