286 Rod and Tackle. CHAP. xx. 



away, got out of sight as an unsportsmanlike thing to be ashamed of. 

 The chances are your 120 yards will never be run clean out and broken, 

 and, even if they are, it is certainly very much more enjoyable, and 

 perhaps just a trifle more sportsmanlike to run those remote chances. 



I will confess that I have myself had on as much as 250 yards of line 

 at times when I have set my heart on killing the biggest fish that ever 

 swam in all Hindustan, but I have never had occasion to use the extra 

 length of line, never. The only result has been that I have simply 

 carried about an unnecessary weight of winch and line. 



The amount of line a winch will hold, depends very much on the 

 description of line you use. The same winch will hold considerably 

 more of the line recommended below for Mahseer fishing than it will 

 of the india-rubber coated plaited silk, which is both more expensive 

 and more bulky. To avoid repetition, therefore, it is perhaps better 

 that I should give the sizes of winches when speaking of running line. 



I would recommend the invariable use of a check-winch in preferenc e 

 to an old-fashioned simple winch. When you have just the length of 

 cast you wish to throw, the check on the winch keeps the line at the 

 same length : whereas, without the check, it is liable to run out a few 

 inches each cast, and thus throw you out, and trouble you. The noise 

 of the check gives you immediate notice of your having a fish on, and, 

 what is of more importance than anything, it makes the reel cease to 

 revolve directly the fish ceases to pull ; whereas, if it goes on revolving 

 as a wheel or common winch from the impetus given to it, it will take a 

 turn or two more after the fish has ceased running, and your running 

 line will get wound the wrong way, and the chances are that if your 

 fish makes another dart of it, there will be a hitch in the line, and your 

 fish will break away. The best winches are termed revolving plate 

 winches. In them the handle has no separate elbow round which the 

 line is apt to get hitched, but is let into the plate which revolves. 

 Winches are made of all sizes, increasing by a quarter of an inch in each 

 size, from 2 inches to 5 inches in diameter, and after that the breadth 

 is increased, and I have seen a specially made one very much bigger 

 than 5 inches in depth. And those now made for Tarpon fishing are, 

 roughly speaking, very roughly speaking, nearly as big as a bicycle. 



Without professing to have any personal experience of Tarpon 

 fishing I may mention that having been shown the Tarpon reel with its 

 addition of a flap of leather, and the method of using the flap, it struck 



