150 Sporting Sketches 



swinging a light craft head on to a taut line which 

 is understood by all familiar with canoes and skirls. 

 An old pair of gloves is no bad protection, for a line 

 sometimes cuts bare hands. 



It is impossible to give anything like detailed in- 

 structions regarding the playing of a fish on a hand- 

 line. A small fellow may be unceremoniously hauled 

 in hand over hand; a big one must be humored. 

 I believe in keeping at a fish all the time, taking no 

 too pronounced liberties and allowing him none. 

 So long as a firm, even hold be maintained on him, 

 he is doomed, if the hooks are planted where they 

 should be. Anything like jerking should not be 

 allowed at either end of the string, for one stiff jerk 

 may play havoc. Only over-excitement or rotten 

 tackle is responsible for the loss of a well-hooked 

 fish. On a handline a big fish might demand ten 

 or fifteen minutes of play I should say an allow- 

 ance of about one-half minute per pound would be 

 about his limit. I know many men tell of much 

 longer struggles, but I never have seen them. The 

 fact is a man fast to a big 'lunge is apt to be mighty 

 poor indeed as a judge of time. It's like the answer 

 of the benedict to the bachelor who asked if statistics 

 showed that married men lived longer than single 

 men " Mebbe it only seems longer." 



A good rod for 'lunge is a high-grade split 

 bamboo, or an ash and lancewood, nine feet long 

 and weighing twelve ounces. This, with a multiply- 

 ing reel of good make and about seventy-five yards 

 of plaited " No. 3," or " E " silk line, and a No. 03 

 Sproat, tied on gimp, will do- the business. A 

 large minnow, or a frog, makes a deadly bait, but 



