CHAPTER IX 



How to Play and How to Land Them 

 WAY TO HANDLE ROD 



The playing and landing of fishes are casually 

 described under the heading of the game fish 

 treated, but a few general rules that will apply to 

 all fish are important. The experienced expert 

 may skip this chapter, but the youthful tyro will 

 find this part of the angler's art to be most valu- 

 able if correctly done, extremely vexing if done ig- 

 norantly. First, in playing a hooked fish three 

 rules must be followed a taut line, rod always up- 

 right, the reel running free. Under 

 Taut Line * .. . _ , \ 



these conditions, a fish, however large, 



cannot unhook itself, assuming the tackle is not 

 defective. The play of the bending rod tip keeps 

 the game in perfect control; the reel should have 

 a restraining click but it should not be too hard, 

 and the line ought not to be touched or manipu- 

 lated by the hands, but by the reel handle instead. 

 Nearly always the bass, ouananiche, numerous 

 trouts, and the unspotted mascalonge, as soon as 

 they feel the prick of the barb, shoot above the 

 surface first. Immediately they do, the tip being 

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