226 WHEN YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY A FISH, 



fish are used to. Moderate your dangerous 

 strength, and strike so as to lift the bait upwards 

 only a few inches. You need not be a bit afraid, 

 if your stroke is quick enough, that it is too 

 weak to hold your fish firmly. Striking strongly 

 is a great defect, a displeasing one, except to fish- 

 ing-tackle makers, who thereby get an increase 

 of business in making and repairing. Rods are 

 broken through it, lines and hooks carried away, 

 and fish lost and uselessly tormented and rendered 

 shy. 



Your rods and lines for bottom-fishing being 

 less delicate than those used in fly-fishing, you 

 may frequently after a very short struggle lift 

 your fish out of the water. In many instances, 

 particularly when you alight upon a shoal of 

 small-sized fish, you should give as little play as 

 possible, bringing your fish at once to the surface 

 of the water and out of it with all dispatch. 

 Barbel and large chub should be allowed to sink 

 and run moderately, and should not be pulled at 

 fiercely at first, under a pretty tight bearing- 

 rein, just sufficiently so to prevent them carrying 

 their noses whithersoever they fancy, and when 

 you feel their obstinacy becoming lax, present the 

 butt-end of your rod to them, and try their strength 

 under a shortened and taut line. If you feel 

 there is danger in bearing so hard, relax the strain 

 on your tackle, and indulge your captive with a 



