68 CHATS ON ANGLING. 



the fish, who are willing to hand over to their attendant, or gillie, the 

 duty which they consider to be monotonous and fatiguing — of playing 

 the fish. 



For my part, I look at the matter from an entirely different point 

 of view. The combat between the fisherman and the fish is essentially 

 a gallant one. In the water, a clean-run fish of, say, 18 lb. really plays 

 the angler for some space of time, and you recognise that although 

 your experience and intelligence may enable you, within a reasonable 

 time, to be the victor, yet that you have attached to you a quarry 

 well worthy of your skill, and one, moreover, who may yet call forth 

 all your activity and resource, and who cannot be accounted as caught 

 until he is absolutely on the grass beside you. 



I, on the contrary, always consider that playing a salmon is the 

 most exciting and interesting part of the sport. In playing a fish, 

 whether it be a heavy trout on a light, single-handed rod, or a clean-run 

 active salmon on a proportionately suitable rod, a sense of touch is 

 needed that bears some resemblance to that necessary for the proper 

 handling of the reins in riding a keen young thoroughbred horse. You 

 require a keen appreciation of when to allow a certain latitude and when 

 to exercise all the pressure that the occasion demands. 



A heavy-handed man will soon render a sensitive-mouthed young 

 horse half demented, whilst at the same time quiet, strong hands exert 

 just that influence that is needed to control his vagaries. Some men 

 are born with the requisite sensitiveness of touch, others will be clumsy 

 and heavy-handed to the end of their days. Some will give undue 

 licence to a fish, will allow him to play for an inordinate length of 

 time, triplicating thereby the risk of losing him. 



It is not possible to lay down on paper any regulations for playing 

 fish beyond what may be termed the "A B C" of the game. You 

 should never allow your rod point to be dragged down below an angle 

 of 45 with the vertical, or a smash of your casting line will be risked. 

 On the other hand, if the rod be kept too vertical an unfair tax is 

 placed upon the strength of your middle joint. Another cardinal point, 

 as every angler knows, is that you should never allow more line off 

 your reel than you can avoid ; that is to say, if your fish means running 

 either up or down stream, and you feel instinctively that it would be 



