444 AN ANECDOTE 



had excellent sport on a day when no one else could 

 take a fish. This was some three-and-twenty years 

 ago ; and I advised several of my friends to adopt the 

 same method when fishing in heavy water, and the 

 result was that I had several accounts of big autumn 

 fish being taken and affording superexcellent sport, 

 running out scores of yards of line under water. I 

 may say that where a river is wide, and there is no 

 means of getting a salmon in a boat, I do not think 

 200 yards of line by any means an unnecessary length, 

 as the following anecdote will go to prove. 



A friend of mine, when fishing on the Spey, after 

 hooking and landing a 30-pounder, saL down to have 

 his luncheon, and then proceeded to fish the same spot 

 in hopes of getting its mate. The gillie, thinking that 

 it was not likely he would get a second fish in the 

 same place, lay down and went to sleep ; however, 

 my friend did succeed in hooking another large fish, 

 from his account an even heavier one than the first. 

 Despite the fact that a lost fish is always an extra big 

 one, the fish ran him out 150 yards of line clean off the 

 reel, when it snapped off. It was in vain that he 

 shouted and yelled for the gillie to fetch the boat, 

 which was some distance farther up-stream ; the latter 

 was too sound asleep. It was impossible to follow the 

 fish, for the water was too deep, and the nature of the 

 ground forbade it, and so the fish, which was evidently 

 not under 30 lb. in weight, went off with everything. 



Now, had my friend been fishing with a floating reel, 

 the case might have been different. Such reels are 

 often used ; and when a fish runs off in this fashion, 

 and there is no help for it, by studying the stream 

 and throwing rod and all in, it is possible to regain 



