SEA TROUT FISHING AND ITS CHANCES. 109 



I thought I had seen the rise, I fished with more care, and soon as my fly 

 was working round below me, I felt a vigorous tug ; something had taken 

 it under water without showing. I was soon convinced that it was no 

 trout that had laid hold, and got ashore as quickly as I could, but I 

 had only forty yards of line and a little backing, so was soon compelled to 

 take to the water again, as my fish was playing sullenly on the far side of 

 the stream. I put on what pressure I dare in order to get on better terms 

 with him, and this roused him a bit, for a vigorous run up to the head of 

 the pool nearly ran my line out, although I was wading as deep as I 

 dared do. My friend the keeper now became interested, and waded in 

 alongside me. 



Though big, the fish was rather craven-hearted, and I was soon 

 able to get ashore again. However, his weight was great, and when 

 he got into the stream down he went into the next pool, I following, 

 rod point up and reel freely running. There were about forty minutes 

 of this slow kind of play and several incursions into the water, and then I 

 began to see my backing on the reel perilously diminishing. The 00 

 hook, however, still held well, and at last I had the satisfaction of 

 seeing the big brute floundering on the surface. The keeper, meanwhile, 

 had gone up to the house to get a gaff, and, walking backwards from 

 the river, I tried to drag the exhausted salmon within his reach ; but, 

 although the rod point was about level with the reel, the dead weight 

 of the fish was more than I could manage. So my friend the keeper, 

 deploring the irreparable damage that must have been done to my rod, 

 waded in, thigh deep, and drove the steel into about as ugly and as 

 red an old cock fish as I have ever seen. His under jaw was crooked, 

 and he looked like an evil monster. He weighed just 17^ lb. As soon 

 as the strain was off my Walbran rod it sprang up as straight and as 

 limber as ever, to the great astonishment of the keeper, who had, oddly 

 enough, never come across a rod of that description. Burying our red 

 fish in the bracken, we went down a bit lower, and, two pools below 

 the house, got out another cock fish of 10 lb., and returning home 

 secured a third in the very same pool where I had caught the first ; this 

 proved to be a hen fish of 12 lb. They were all red and ugly, but 

 the last one was, comparatively speaking, quite passable. As soon as 

 she was gaffed we looked up the first fish ; he had turned quite black, 



