io6 Artificial-Fly Fishing. 



care in landing, and should receive all the consid- 

 eration which the angler can bestow, as it often 

 requires more skill to kill a trout a couple of 

 pounds in weight, with fine tackle on a loop-rod, 

 than to land a lordly salmon ten times that weight 

 with a hundred yards of eight-plait on a multiply- 

 ing winch. For, as Cotton said to the young aspirant 

 after piscatorial fame, " This, sir, is a war where 

 you sometimes win, and must sometimes expect to 

 lose." And though every angler knows that the 

 cowardly fish that " fight and run away " are always 

 bigger than the manlier ones that " stand and de- 

 liver," it is good policy, at least so long as the issue 

 of the strife is doubtful, "to weigh the enemy more 

 mighty than he seems." Up with the point of your 

 rod, then, " muster your wits," and take him stead- 

 ily down-stream to the nearest gravel-bed or easy 

 landing-stage, and never let him get below you. 

 Should he show " game," and throw himself out of 

 the water, you must, to relieve the strain, lower 

 the point of the rod as he drops back again, for 



" Now is it manhood, wisdom, and defence 

 To give the enemy way ; " 



but the instant he reaches the water resume your 

 advantage, and relax not your effort till in ex- 

 haustion and defeat he measures his scaly length 

 upon the channel. 



