102 ANGLING. 



you won't hook him without pretty fine tackle, and you can't 

 pitch him over your head with that. Still, you will often 

 be able to get a fish out of a dangerous locality by prompt 

 measures, which you would lose without ; for I generally 

 regard a fish hung up on weeds as about two-thirds gone, 

 for you don't save one in three. I don't know how it is, 

 but I believe they hang on to the weed with their mouths, 

 and let you pull against the weed if you do pull, and if 

 you don't in time the weed gets round the line, and there 

 you are ! Polling out or cutting out is very risky work. 

 Tet que womlm vou? If the fish are much given to 

 " weeding " a long light fir pole with a hook knife on it, 

 kept somewhere within 50 or 100 yards off you, would no 

 doubt enable you to cut the weed off close to the roots, for 

 less than that is dangerous, as you might cut the line. 

 The only thing to do with the rod is to go down 

 stream, put a steady but not heavy strain on in the 

 same direction the weed lies. The fish may (if he does 

 not get free) get tired and let go, or the weed clear 

 itself. The chance is not much of a one, still it is the 

 only one. 



When a fish is first hooked, if he be in a weedy place, 

 get a strong pull at him at once before he knows where he 

 is or what you are about, and lug him out of it. If you 

 leave him there, he will be sure to go into the weeds 

 sooner or later, so you may as well try conclusions with 

 him at once. I have often lugged a pound fish over a bed 

 of weeds a yard wide, and, more, by taking the initiative. 

 Where a fish bores determinedly in a weed, root or hole, 

 you must try and slant his head another way, and if that 

 does not do just hold on and let him do his worst. You 

 may as well lose him at first as at last after half an hour's 

 roking and poking, loss of time, and aggravation. 



