14 The Mahscer. CHAP. n. 



Fire away, Mr. Mahseer, discourse sweet music on the long-stringed 

 winch. The more the fish fights the better, the better for sport, the 

 better for speedily killing him ; any respite is recovery of strength, and 

 a good sulk makes him almost as bad to kill as a new fish. 



The ground on which I lay such stress on continuity of pressure, 

 more even than on the strength of the pressure, is simple enough when 

 it is considered. Under any extraordinary exertion the muscles call on 

 the blood, and the blood on the lungs, for speedy renewal of speedy 

 waste, and the result is being what is called " out of breath," and the 

 muscles, though by no means tired out, can do nothing till the breath is 

 regained, shall we say till the blood has been re-oxygenated. Never 

 give a moment's grace then for this re-oxygenating of the blood, and 

 you may kill a large fish in a very short time. The average time for 

 killing a big fish with a salmon rod is a pound a minute. A twenty 

 pound fish should be your own in twenty minutes or thereabouts, 

 according to the water in which you have to fight him. By continuity 

 of pressure, unremitting strain without one moment's respite, you keep 

 the fish out of breath, and thereby neutralize the latent muscular 

 power, which a little breathing space would soon renew, and give you 

 all your work to do over again. This is how it is that some people 

 play an ordinary salmon for long hours, and think they have a most 

 extraordinarily game fish on. It is the same principle on which " the 

 mighty boar " is speared. Press him to his very utmost speed from the 

 first, and keep him at it, and you will soon overhaul him but let him go 

 at his own pace, a pace that will not distress him, and he will keep you 

 at an English hunting gallop till he walks away from you, the horse 

 giving in before the boar, that is, if he is at all a travelled pig. 



I have a theory that if the strain on the fish is kept as much as 

 possible at right angles to the current, it has a greater effect on him 

 than any other strain. If the fish is down stream playing lazily about, 

 not vigorously, perhaps meditating sulks, it is obvious that he is at a 

 great advantage, he has the whole weight of the stream in his favour, 

 and you distress him very little in comparison to the pull on your rod. 

 He is practically resting and recruiting. But get the pull to bear at 

 right angles to the force of the current and he cannot help exerting 

 himself to keep his nose straight to the stream. If he allows himself 

 to be pulled out of his position, and gets ever so slightly side on to the 

 stream, in he comes towards shore immediately, is frightened at the 



