130 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



and its butt away from the body, the strongest among the 

 half dozen, and he a man of muscle, could with his ut- 

 most effort such an effort that the rod fairly quivered 

 scarcely raise a strain of one and a quarter pounds. 

 He had caught many large fish, and frankly admitted 

 that he had never exerted any such force as that. We 

 all tried it, I among the number. The very next morn- 

 ing I took a trout which weighed five pounds and two 

 ounces, after a twenty minutes' fight. During this I 

 constantly had in mind the experiment of the preced- 

 ing evening, and I am confident that at no time did his 

 pull exceed half a pound. This was, however, in still 

 water. 



During September of the same year a friend, using 

 quite a fine leader tested to four and a half pounds, fast- 

 ened a trout in still water but in a very dangerous 

 place. Not only did he hold him without yielding an 

 inch of line, but hung to him till his guide took the boat 

 into clear water, towing the fish after. It weighed four 

 and a half pounds. 



I might multiply instances of this kind, but these seem 

 sufficient. 



Such were my views when this book originally went 

 to press. But that experiment is the touchstone of 

 theory cannot be too strongly impressed on the angling 

 mind. When brought face to face with an assumption 

 which we know is fallacious, we are very apt to run to 

 the other extreme, and this I did. 



Salmon-fishing became very dull on the Moisie River by 

 the middle of July, 1 887. As we were fixed there until the 

 21st, we turned our attention to the sea-trout. Not until 

 the 18th did we strike them in numbers; after that they 

 were sufficiently abundant to satisfy the most grasping. 



