ii6 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



looks insignificant and uninteresting, but I am con- 

 vinced tliat without its aid it would be most tire- 

 some, if not often impossible, to win so great a fish 

 from its lair. I refer to the leather rod-rest for 

 clamping on the fisherman's armchair just between 

 his knees. It resembles in shape and size a break- 

 fast cup, and as soon as the fish is fairly hooked 

 the fisherman slips the end of the butt into it, 

 thereby gaining a tremendous leverage, so that he 

 can alternately raise and lower the top and reel in 

 the slack thus obtained. But for this ingenious 

 device the rod would almost certainly be snatched 

 from his grasp at the first jump of so pro- 

 digious an acrobat, and the fatigue of reeling it in 

 while under water would be incalculably greater, 

 while the tip, having in that case to rest on the 

 gunwale, would probably break under the heavy 

 strain. A somewhat similar rod-rest is made on a 

 belt attachment, which the fisherman is supposed 

 to gird about him when he steps out of the boat to 

 clamber up the beach and play his tarpon to the 

 gaff. Personally, after one or two exceedingly 

 disagreeable experiences of this manner of applying 

 the closure, I preferred to remain in the boat. 

 Had I , at the outset, known this to be by far the 

 more comfortable method, I should not have 

 purchased the belt at all. Even on its best days 

 the Gasparel beach is not adapted to this manoeuvre, 

 and when, after a spell of wind, the sea has washed 

 most of it away, the fisherman has to behave like a 

 fly climbing up a wall, only the fly has special feet for 

 the job and has not got to pull a hundred-pound 

 tarpon after it. 



The gaff, which has nothing remarkable about 



