322 Big Game Fishes 



it with my light rod, and then I had waded out, 

 knee-deep, on to a little shoal which projected into 

 the channel, from which vantage-ground, the 

 home of the mullet, I played my fish and was 

 played. I would gain ten or twenty feet, then 

 lose it, then by turning the fish inshore and 

 wading rapidly, I would regain the lost line. And 

 so, giving and taking, the contest went on, every 

 now and then the fish making a desperate rush ; 

 and the closer in I reeled it the more savage 

 became its plays. It had one singular movement 

 which appeared to be a rapid dive in a half-circle, 

 bearing away on the line with all its power, then 

 evidently turning suddenly, which gave a slack 

 line for a second as it ran toward me, which was 

 perhaps a trick to gain line. But I foiled it by 

 more than ordinary good luck, all the time being 

 carried slowly up the channel, but now moving 

 gradually in so that I at last reeled the fish up 

 the steep channel slope on to the shoal and had it 

 in three feet of water, where it circled me several 

 times as I slowly and carefully backed inshore. 



By this time one of the boatmen had appeared 

 and now waded out ; and, as well wearied with my 

 bare-headed fight under a terrific sun, I brought 

 the fish in, he grained it a savage and barbar- 



