252 Fishing in Estuaries. CHAP. xvin. 



I have let Colonel Osborn's opinions stand as they are, but for my 

 part I do not see the advantage of letting a big fish have his run, 

 except it be that you get a belly on the line which acts as a cushion to 

 sudden jerks. I would rather contest every inch with him from the 

 first, trusting to the elasticity of my top joint and to my tackle being 

 fresh and good to help me over the angry plunges, at each of which 

 you make the usual concession to his temper of a momentary slight 

 lowering of the top of the rod, a concessionary bow so to speak, 

 and the more passionate he is the cooler you must be in watching 

 his temper. So doing I would even take a little extra toll out 

 of him with my brake-winch, page 17, as soon as I got him settled 

 down to a good even gallop, for the first violent burst is always soon 

 over the worst of it. There will be no increased danger of a consequent 

 break of tackle, because the brake is so completely under control that 

 you can ease off instantaneously if he gets passionate. A British 

 Ambassador in foreign parts, whose programme was laid out for him, 

 as I am laying out yours here, wrote Lord Palmerston that if we did a 

 certain thing the foreigner threatened war. Old Pam's answer was 

 prompt, brief, and characteristic : " Tell them two can play at that 

 game." You say the same to your fish. I don't see why they should 

 have the game all their own way. I like "cutting in" and taking a 

 hand myself with just a pound or two of extra tension. But always, 

 mind you, at the right time, judiciously applied, with a delicate touch 

 of the thumb on the spring button. And it is this judicious application, 

 this employment of one's brains in fishing, that is an extra pleasure. 

 It makes the conquest more scientific as well as much more certain. 

 Many risks of rock and snag, and sag and slack line, and fresh breath- 

 ing space, are avoided by keeping a straight line from rod to fish. And 

 much time is saved by continuity of tension ; not brute force, that I 

 never advocate, but evenly regulated continuity. Of course Pam killed 

 his fish. And so will you if you mind what you are about. 



This fish has also been caught in the Fort moat at Madras ; they 

 would seem to have got in through the sluices as fry. One of these 

 fish caught there by Mr. Robinson, and now stuffed in the Madras 

 Museum, weighed 33 Ibs. 5 ozs. 



They are in all estuaries on both coasts of India, certainly as far 

 north as Calcutta. At Cochin a good fisherman gave them up as a 

 bad job, as " they had walked off with and smashed everything he had 



