72 FISHING IN AMEEICAN WATERS. 



its corners may cut or chafe and part my line. There ! he 

 has tacked again ; be ready to gaff him, if I get him near 

 enough, before he makes anpther run. 



Hosier. I see his mate a keeping alongside of him all the 

 time; she's 'bout as big as the hooked one. I mean to gaff 

 that one first. How like tarnation the feller fights, an tries 

 to whip out the hook with his tail ; that shows he's gitting 

 tired. When they curl themselves up on the top of the wa- 

 ter so that you can't budge 'em, you had better be careful 

 not to hold so hard as to let 'em break the line with their tail, 

 nor cut it off with their back fin ; nor so loose as to let him 

 git slack line to unhook, or knock the hook out of his jaw 

 with his tail. There ! see him straighten out ! He has made 

 his last fight, and got whipped ! His mate has gone. 'Twas 

 no use for her to stay an try to help him any Longer, for she 

 knows he's dead. Now, with the heave and haul of the tide, 

 there is more danger of breaking the line an losing him than 

 if he was. alive ; but here he comes, an here goes the gaff a 

 forty-pounder at least I 



S. Well done, Hosier ! Struck just in time, for the hook 

 has let go. 



Hosier. Jist so ; I hain't no confidence in them hooks with 

 the barb curling out so that you can not git it into the flesh. 

 The Kinsey point an Sproat bend, or the O'Shaughnessy with 

 the Kinsey point, are the best. 



D. Well, my preconceived notions of bass-fishing have all 

 been cast wide. When you first hooked the bass, I thought 

 I could take a seat and be a quiet looker-on at the play ; but 

 I have been so excited by alternate hopes, fears, doubts, and 

 surprises, that I want you to pardon me for getting into your 

 way several times. The truth is, it astonishes me to see the 

 fish on terra firma. I thought him lost a dozen times ; and I 

 can not now fully realize how it is possible to play success- 

 fully so large a fish, and one so game, in such boisterous 

 water, with such slender tackle. I am really afraid to try to 

 make a cast, for -I expect if I get a strike that I shall either 

 break my rod, or the fish will part my line. 



