I2O THe Determined Angler 



Landing the Fish. "The surest way to take the 

 fish is give her leave to play and yield her line. " 

 Quarles, Shepheard's Eclogues, 1644. Subdue a big 

 fish before you try to land him. Don't be in a hurry. 

 Give him line, but keep it taut (not tight), and don't 

 become excited. Don't try to yank him out of his 

 element or pull him through the line guides. Raise the 

 rod tip over the back of your head, and don't grab the 

 line guide the game into the landing net or up to 

 the gaff. Take your time. Be glad if the fish escapes. 

 His life is as important as yours to him, at least. 

 Besides, you'd soon tire of fishing if you never lost a 

 fish. "The play's the thing" in angling, anyway, 

 because, as an Angler, you can buy fish cheaper than 

 you can catch them, if you play fair if you're not of 

 the gentry that judge the day by quantity instead of 

 quality. Some of the greatest Anglers are the poorest 

 fish killers, but to them one fish correctly captured on 

 chivalric tackle means more than a tubful of butchered 

 victims means to the unenlightened bungler. Contrast 

 and conditions count for something in everything. 

 If there were no cloudy days we'd never correctly 

 value the sunshine. Method in the pursuit, ap- 

 propriateness of the equipment, and uncertainty 

 in the catch, wholly distasteful to the selfish 

 neophyte, are thoroughly appreciated by the 

 Angler. 



Ancient Angling. One of the most ancient literary 

 works on fishing, perhaps the most ancient of all really 

 known volumes on the subject, is Hauleutics of 

 Oppian, the work of a Greek poet, A.D. 198, from 

 which many articles on fishing and angling, thought 

 to be modern, have been taken. Athenaeus tells us 



