1 6 Big Game Fishes 



she had never held a rod before. She used the 

 same tackle, the same bait. Her ungallant com- 

 panions changed the rod, insisted upon exchang- 

 ing seats, but they failed to change her luck. 

 From the time Deucalion 



" Did first the art invent 

 Of angling, and his people taught the same," 



the uncertainty of fisherman's luck has been 

 proverbial; but perhaps this ephemeral luck, so 

 potent to make or unmake a fishing day, has 

 more in it than appears on the surface. You as 

 well as I have perhaps often noticed that the 

 lucky fisherman is a person of method. If a 

 fisherman becomes possessed with the idea that a 

 two-dollar reel is as potent to take tarpon and 

 tuna as one costing fifteen or twenty dollars, that 

 man is more than likely to attain a reputation as 

 having poor luck. The man who never changes 

 the line from the lower to the upper guides, who 

 uses a line one hundred times, who has a theory 

 that the ebb tide and the afternoon are best for 

 fishing, is more than likely to be unlucky. This 

 old man of the sea, " hard luck," will surely fasten 

 upon such an one. You perhaps have observed 

 that the angler who soon becomes weary of the 



