THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON 



himself, making a series of rushes up and down, in and out ; 

 then taking a position in a deep eddy, defied me. 



I had caught a seventeen-pound yellowtail with the eight- 

 ounce rod, though I had the reel above the grip, and now the 

 reel was at the end, and when I tried to reel I merely reeled 

 the tip and first joint into the black river ; the only way I could 

 offset this was by giving line. I reeled and gave line several 

 times, but the salmon was laughing at me, and so, I fancy, was 

 Tom, my guide. Things in some way were reversed, and it 

 gradually dawned on me that I was being played by the salmon. 

 So I told Tom to row off, and when we reached a spot one hundred 

 feet distant I began to reel. 



The reel rallied nobly and lifted the fish, which dashed around 

 in a great curve, then came at me with such rapidity that I 

 could not take in the line on my single action reel and was sure 

 he was off. I stripped the line in with my left hand, coil after 

 coil, as the river bank here abounded in branches cut and dropped 

 in by beavers, and the salmon displayed a too-evident desire to 

 run along this chevaux de frieze, when the lightest touch on my 

 green tapered line would have severed it. The fish came racing 

 up to the boat, saw me, and turned, dashing away, and taking 

 thirty feet of line through my thumb and forefinger until he 

 was exhausted. Then I called on the eight-ounce rod, which 

 displayed its resiliency by taking to the water. 



We went through this performance several times, and as it 

 was a very warm day, and I had been playing the fish forty min- 

 utes, I began to suspect that my rod, and even myself, were 

 outclassed by this doughty fish. I recalled an argument I had 

 with my friend Annan on the Tweed ; I taking the ground that 

 the EngUsh salmon rod was unnecessarily long and stiEf. How 

 I wished for that very rod, or something that would move this 

 colossus of the pool ! How pitiable my trout rod appeared trying 

 to hide its head, and its entire length, for that matter. How 

 Annan would have enjoyed my confusion ! I tried every ex- 

 pedient from rowing off, to rowing over the fish ; but he was, 



265 



