CHAP. ii. Playing a Mahseer. 13 



my fish out of the water as soon as safely may be. Brute force is of 

 course out of the question, but short of that I am for putting on all the 

 strain the rod and tackle is calculated to bear, and it is a matter of 

 some little nicety to know exactly how much your rod will bear. But, 

 above all, I am for keeping on the strain unremittingly, without a 

 moment's respite. Do not give the fish an instant to think, or it may 

 occur to him to take up a position in which he can sulk at the bottom, 

 and that is dreadfully slow work. You must then try all the remedies 

 usually prescribed for a sulking salmon, but it is a tedious business at 

 the best, and it is losing time while you might be trying for another 

 fish. My faith is that by sufficient promptitude you can prevent his ever 

 taking to sulking at all. The very moment he ceases rushing, commence 

 winding up, and wind away as vigorously as you dare without a second's 

 hesitation. Do not wait for him to shape the course of events, but 

 shape it yourself. Rely a good deal on the force of " pure cussedness " 

 in a fish. Whatever you do his first idea is to do the exact opposite. 

 He is afraid of your restraint, which is novel to him, and his first 

 impulse is to break away from it. Subsequent yearnings he may 

 possibly have, and doubtless has, when he comes to think of it, for the 

 shelter of some deep corner where he is used to solace himself, his own 

 fireside. But it is a novel experience to him this restraint, and it is no 

 new work to you, and you may pre-occupy his mind, and occupy his 

 tail, not a little, if you show prompt generalship. The master mind 

 may come in here as well as in the fall of empires, and it is surely a 

 pleasure to find you have that commodity somewhere about you. Of 

 course you have it. We all knew you had it. And now it is proved ! 

 The very instant the fish hesitates wind him in. It is not impossible 

 you may land him at once, getting him on shore before he has well 

 made up his mind what to do. But the probabilities are that as he 

 finds himself nearing the shore, and gets a clearer view of the great big 

 trousered biped that is bothering him, he will summon up all his 

 strength for another rush. All right, that is just what you want ; you 

 only want to make him keep on exerting himself unremittingly, and he 

 must soon be yours. Is there no music in that whir-whir-whir of the check- 

 reel, the rod bending bravely all the while ? Surely it was of this that 

 the sporting poet Shakspeare said some hard things with reference to 



"The man who hath no music in himself 

 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds." 



