A LONG FIGHT. 59 



at least. He'll take you all night, sir,' said Wisdom. 

 ' Then I'll stop with him all night, if he does not break 

 me, for I never have been able to kill one of these big 

 ones with a single hair,' was my reply. I had often on the 

 same spot hooked three or four of these monsters in a 

 morning, but I never could kill one of them. They always 

 got away, for not far below us was a large deep hole, full 

 of snags, old roots, and rubbish ; and sooner or later they 

 always remembered their hole there, and dashed into it 

 headlong. Even stout ledger-tackle would hardly have 

 held them, and that they were very shy at, preferring the 

 single hair greatly. This hole was about fifty yards 

 below us, and I constantly expected the fish would make 

 for it. However, though he made constant runs, he 

 never cared to go above half the distance, but sheered 

 about, now out in the stream and now in towards the 

 campshot. 1 It had long been dark, and he showed no 

 symtoms of tiring, though he had in turn tired all of us. 

 Playing a fish in the dark is awkward work, so we hailed 

 some men, several of whom, attracted by the report of our 

 having hooked ' a big 'un,' were standing on the bank, to 

 bring us a couple of Ian thorns and some hot brandy and 

 water, for it was bitterly cold ; and with the aid of the 

 lanthorns we at length managed to get the net under the 

 fish and lifted him oat. It was half-past eight when he 

 was landed, so that I had had him on three and a half 

 hours. And now what does the reader think he weighed ? 

 I was disgusted to find that he was only a six-and-a-half 

 pound fish ; had I known it, I would have broken from hirn 

 hours before ; but it turned out that he was hooked by the 

 back-fin, and his head being perfectly free, of course he 

 played as heavily as a fish of double the size ; and even 



1 ' The campshot,' as it is termed on the Thames, is the wooden board- 

 ing and piling that keeps up the bank of the river. In places where it 

 gets old and broken, it makes a famous harbour for fish. 



