THE COUP DE GRACE 53 



beauty secure, and carry him up the bank (see 

 Plate X.). 



Once more my spear is used, and my disengaged 

 right hand grasps the fish below the gills, the thumb 

 and forefinger seeking the gill opening, leaving my left 

 to kill and unhook my fish. Notice how well hooked 

 he is fairly back in the mouth, in the lower part of the 

 tongue ! Here again let me remind you of the ad- 

 vantage in the dry fly method. As you now know, 

 the fish takes the fly in most cases when he sees it 

 coming towards him from up-stream ; when, therefore, 

 you are fishing below him, the hook, as a natural 

 consequence, is jerked further into his mouth, as in 

 this case, instead of being jerked out of his mouth, 

 as when fishing above him, and hence the chance 

 of hooking a rising fish by the dry fly method is 

 infinitely greater than when wet fly fishing down- 

 stream. 



It is a good fish, and so it will go into the creel ; but 

 how are we to kill it ? Knock its head ? No ; there 

 is a better, quicker, cleaner, and more merciful way in 

 dealing with fish of this size. I still have hold of it in 

 my right hand ; I turn the belly towards me, and insert 

 the thumb of my left hand into its mouth, nail down, 

 and bend back its upper jaw and head towards the 

 dorsal fin, and in a second its neck is broken. It is dead 

 and inert, and is not disfigured, and even if it now 

 slipped into the water the landing-net would easily 

 recover it. 



With any trout whose weight is under a pound this, 



