TACKLE 231 



good the act of gaffing in ordinary water can be 

 done as surely at last by the angler himself as by 

 any one else, and the best way is that which is 

 most easy and certain to gaff the fish over the 

 back in the thickest part. 



But in gaffing my practice is the reverse of 

 that when using a landing net for trout. In the 

 case of a fat lively trout on a small hook, the 

 management of the rod seems to me up to the 

 very end more difficult than the use of the net, 

 and I therefore keep the rod in the cleverest 

 hand the right hand in my case. I can receive 

 a trout in the net and draw it to the bank as 

 well with the left hand as with the right. With 

 the gaff it is not so; and at the moment of 

 gaffing the management of the gaff is, I consider, 

 more difficult than that of the rod. My left hand 

 cannot be trusted either to gaff or lift the salmon 

 so surely as the other, and I therefore chafcge 

 the rod to the left hand as the critical moment 

 approaches, and use the gaff with the right. One 

 ought, however, to be doubly sure that the fish 

 is exhausted before this change is made, and this is 

 one of the reasons why it takes longer to gaff one's 

 own salmon than to have it done by an attendant. 



