132 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



there would be slack line near the tip to enable the 

 other to fasten some part of this slack to the spring- 

 balance. After the connection was made the line was 

 released so as to bring all subsequent strain directly 

 upon the spring-balance. 



The results were most provoking. Trout are pro- 

 verbially perverse, but it seemed to me as if I had never 

 in my experience seen any so thoroughly imbued with 

 this abominable characteristic. To make the connection 

 with the spring-balance required time, and by the time 

 it was made the fish would either stop pulling alto- 

 gether or would pull with but a portion of the vigor it 

 had displayed while the line was being made fast. 

 Then we would try to stir them up by jerking on the 

 line. This generally produced the desired effect, but 

 by no means in the desired degree before the line had 

 been hauled in to such an extent as to make a fresh 

 connection with the spring-balance necessary. This 

 again took time, and when we were ready the fish 

 would again become comparatively quiescent. Then 

 we disconnected again, hauled the fish in, hand over 

 hand, fastened on the spring-balance once more, and 

 proceeded to stimulate the fish by poking it with the 

 handle of the landing-net. When fortune seemed to 

 smile on us it was in but a half-hearted fashion. Just 

 as we thought we had a result, the fish would break 

 away so that we could not complete the experiment by 

 determining his weight. With all the larger fish either 

 this was the case or we could not induce them to do 

 their best when we were in a position to record it. 



For two days every fish I fastened was subjected to 

 this experiment. The indicator of the spring-balance 

 was never at rest for an instant when the fish were pull- 



