CHAP. xx. My Brake-winch. 293 



cataract, that no boat could live in, that no mortal but an ibex could 

 run alongside of, and longer than the running line, so after all the 

 play the whole stake had to be cast on heroic treatment at this point. 

 H. ran below to turn the fish, but meanwhile R.'s tension had made the 

 fish's heart fail, and he yielded, and came up stream just at a point 

 where, if he had only persisted in going down stream, he must have 

 broken loose, and been still exulting in the glad waters of the Bawanny. 

 It was a victory of mind over matter. But the tension had drawn the 

 winch out of the winch fittings, and it was loose in R.'s hands. A call 

 to H. and it was adroitly put in position again." And so on till the fish 

 was shelved, as game a fighter as it has ever been my good fortune, for 

 R. was your humble servant, to battle with and vanquish, and with 

 great advantages of water of which the fish fully availed himself. 



1 I have quoted the battle in order to show that I am not dealing with 

 theories, but with actuals. The tension being straight from the fish to 

 the winch, the winch was pulled against the sliding ring which held it in 

 position, till the ring was pulled up the rod and the winch was free and 

 would have fallen to the sandy ground or river if it had not been 

 caught as it fell. And who but a first class man like H., cool of head 

 and quick of hand, would have put the winch in position again and 

 fixed it the right way up, with no hitch on the line, the fish fighting all 

 the while. Here was a real danger consequent on using a brake, a 

 danger which I could not have surmounted with any one but H. to help 

 me, still less if I had been alone. 



From that 'day forward I always put a lashing round my rod just 

 above the sliding ring, after it was put in position over the winch heel 

 plate. I call the plate on which the winch stands the heel plate. But 

 it was a troublesome expedient, and I don't think the "Wedgefast" 

 winch fitting of J. Warner & Sons, Hewell Works, Redditch, was then 

 invented. Fishing in tropical climes the wood of the rod is sure to 

 shrink from the heat, and the ring fittings, which fitted to a nicety when 

 they left the rod maker's hands, become a little loose, and with a heavy 

 winch on a rod in constant motion all the day and sometimes held 

 point downwards, with the weight of the winch pressing against the 

 upper sliding ring, if you happen to be fishing from the top of high rocks 

 in a pool well below you, the winch may well get dangerously loose in 

 its fixings. To guard against this you will do well in any case to have 

 some such contrivance as the " Wedgefast " which is the best device I 



