832 A Fight with a Trout. 



trout plunged into the water with a hissing sound, and went away 

 again with all the line on the reel. More butt; more indignation on 

 the part of the captive. The contest had now been going on for 

 half an hour, and I was getting exhausted. We had been back and 

 forth across the lake and round and round the lake. What I feared 

 was that the trout would start up the inlet and wreck us in the bushes. 

 But he had a new fancy, and began the execution of a maneuver 

 which I had never read of. Instead of coming straight toward me, 

 he took a large circle, swimming rapidly, and gradually contracting 

 his orbit. I reeled in, and kept my eye on him. Round and round 

 he went, narrowing his circle. I began to suspect the game ; which 

 was to twist my head off. When he had reduced the radius of his 

 circle to about twenty-five feet, he struck a tremendous pace through 

 the water. It would be false modesty in a sportsman to say that I 

 was not equal to the occasion. Instead of turning round with him, 

 as he expected, I stepped to the bow, braced myself, and let the boat 

 swing. Round went the fish, and round we went like a top. I saw 

 a line of Mount Marcys all round the horizon ; the rosy tint in 

 the west made a broad band of pink along the sky above the tree- 

 tops ; the evening- star was a perfect circle of light, a hoop of gold 

 in the heavens. We whirled and reeled, and reeled and whirled. 

 I was willing to give the malicious beast butt and line and all, if 

 he would only go the other way for a change. 



When I came to myself Luke was gaffing the trout at the boat- 

 side. After we had got him in and dressed him he weighed three- 

 quarters of a pound. Fish always lose by being " got in and dressed." 

 It is best to weigh them while they are in the water. The only 

 really large one I ever caught got away with my leader when I 

 first struck him. He weighed ten pounds. 



