THE LANDING NET. IQI 



the rod, playing the fish at the extremity of a short 

 line until exhausted. 



" You've been very lucky with this un, sir.'' 

 " We shall be equally as lucky you will find with 

 the next," was our reply. At the very next cast the 

 game was repeated, with the same result, nor did we 

 desist until we had sufficiently punished the cunning 

 old fox, by an extract sufficient to cram both creels 

 with the lazy monsters, whose presence near the 

 bridge we knew to be the keeper's pride. 



LANDING. In trout fishing the landing-net should 

 invariably be included in the necessary apparatus. 

 The tackle is never constructed with a view to extract 

 fish bodily out of their element, moreover it is 

 anything but sportsman-like to attempt it. When it 

 is desired to net a fish, the usual rule is to head the 

 capture to the nearest available place if it should be 

 impracticable where hooked ; and in all cases the net 

 should be the medium by which the quarry is conveyed 

 to land. It may appear a very simple matter to the 

 unpractical mind to net an already hooked fish, but 

 anglers of experience know well, too well, perhaps, 

 that indiscretion and undue haste in landing, or 

 even presenting the net to a supposed exhausted fish 

 will cause him to make yet another plunge, when 

 least expected, for life and liberty. We always use the 

 net with our disengaged hand, holding it edgeways, 

 partly to enter the water readily, so as to get beneath 

 the fish, and partly to meet the fish, which is so 

 brought round as to enter the net forcibly. Bungling 

 aid we have always found worse than no assistance ; 



