CHAP. xv. , Suiting a New Customer. 217 



a small fish, averaging, tail included, not more than the length of my 

 middle finger, was running up the fish ladder in countless numbers. It 

 was captured and found to be Mugil cascasia, of which more anon. So 

 I then and there rigged up on single salmon gut fine spinning tackle of 

 one lip hook and one No. 6 treble with a sinker, and fished on the 

 bottom, pulling very slowly, and at short intervals letting the bait rest 

 for a minute or two on the bottom. I soon found that it was by a long 

 way a more killing bait than any one present was using. And they saw 

 it too in the proofs spread upon the shore, and they wanted to know 

 what it was, they who had caught Seetul for years, while I had never 

 seen them before in my life. Of course it was a pleasure to show them 

 every whit, with the why and the wherefore, though I had not presumed 

 to venture a hint till my experiment had proved a success. It was a 

 crow for this child. But nothing more, dear reader, than you or any 

 angler can do that will fish with his brains on a natural history basis, 

 observing his fish closely, and adapting his tackle to its special require- 

 ments, remembering that he cannot always expect Indian fish to 

 appreciate English tackle, not even the best of it, as they may have 

 idiosyncrasies of their own which must be humoured. Accordingly, 

 here I was trying for fish that I knew ran to 4 feet in length, that were 

 rolling and flashing in my sight showing off their great size and agility, 

 yet fishing with tackle such as would have been suitable in England for 

 a i Ib. trout, the gut only being stronger. Another thing I had expected 

 from the formation and armature of that mouth, namely, that the bite 

 would not, probably, be sudden like a pike's or a siluroid's. And so I 

 found it. Giving time by slow spinning and constant waits on the 

 bottomland using a sensitive rod, I found the bite was a gentle nibble, 

 not always followed by a run off with the bait. So I struck to the 

 nibble and it payed. It was promptly answered by a grand rush, my 

 silvery friend flinging his glistening sides with a bright flash high in air. 

 In the matter of play he was a magnified trout. Let me instance one. 

 He turned the scale at 16 Ibs. He was taken on a 14 feet double-handed 

 trout rod, that was exceptionally light and pliant for its length. With 

 it I could feel the gentlest nibble of a small-mouthed fish fumbling 

 over a bait which, though only three and a half inches long, was more 

 than a convenient mouthful. And when the grand rush came in 

 instant answer to the strike, how the rod bent and quivered and yielded, 

 seeming to gasp for breath at the pace at which the line flew out in 



