MARCH 51 



Besides, how fiercely a fish fights, or 

 for how long, depends in some measure 

 upon where he is hooked. Hooked in 

 certain parts of the mouth, he has less 

 purchase than he would have if hooked 

 elsewhere. On the very rare occasions 

 when you hook him in both lips, closing 

 them, he may come to the bank as if he 

 were a shot rocket. If by evil hap you 

 have him by the tail or by the dorsal fin, 

 he may keep you going so long that, 

 thinking of other captures possible, you 

 would be rather glad to be quit of him. 

 Truth to tell, maxims about how long you 

 should take to land a fish are not to be 

 accepted literally. 



In very clear streams, such as the Tay, 

 you will have but few opportunities to 

 count the time between hooking and 

 landing unless you use gut so thin that 

 any attempt to hasten matters by force 

 will cause a breakage. On very fine gut 

 a pound trout subjected to over-eager 

 coercion is just as likely to be lost as one 

 of any greater weight. In nearly all 



