208 Recreations of a Sportsman 



socket of one's belt if the play came hard, taking 

 it out to hold it firmly in the rushes. I fancy 

 it was the first tackle of the kind ever tried on 

 the salmon, at least it was new to the majority 

 of hand-line fishermen who filled most of the 

 launches, and when w T e hooked a fish we became 

 the centre of the field and bets were freely 

 made and taken. Gambling is uncertain. A 

 tall thin Fresno man who had come down to 

 the coast on his hay wagon to catch salmon and 

 salt them down, almost was Bill's undoing. He 

 shouted, " Five dollars he don't land him on 

 that tackle." Bill's sporting blood surged to 

 the fore and he took him up, wrapping a five- 

 dollar gold piece in a newspaper and tossing it 

 at the captain of the launch who was the 

 stakeholder. This centred the interest on the 

 Irresistible Arabella and every move I made was 

 watched with profound interest. Every time the 

 salmon made a rush they cheered and shouted 

 trying to demoralize us, and the fight was on 

 in the centre of great hilarity, the hand-liners 

 meantime hauling in fish all about. 



We had advice from various quarters, and 

 there was a strong opinion that the "pole" would 

 break. Fearing that it might I played a wait- 

 ing game and took things easily, which means 

 that I took no chances, as I knew, despite the 

 gloomy predictions, that I had the big fish on 

 the run. I played the fish carefully, repeatedly 



