284 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



moved up a few yards, and again watched the bait down towards the 

 stolid fish. This time the cockroach had sunk deeper in the water, and, 

 with a sort of chuckle, I watched it gradually approach his muzzle in the 

 same plane, and not as before, rather above. As it neared him, to my 

 inexpressible joy, I saw his under lip show as if it had, by some mechanical 

 impulse connected with the bait, automatically moved. Nearer passed 

 the bait onwards, the jaw lowered yet, and, like a child taking a sop, 

 like an unfledged bird taking in a worm, it passed behind the portals of 

 that polished head. With suppressed breath and palpitating heart I 

 counted one, two, three, four, five then, with a side movement, I struck ; 

 not violently, but swiftly ; not mightily, but strongly. Ye gods, he 

 was hooked, and out yards in the stream he sped ! 



Of course he was only landed after the usual interregnum of splendid 

 struggling, and I became the hero of the hour in the possession of this 

 splendid fish. 



