PLAYING AND LANDING A FISH 203 



gut being caught up in the bend of the hook, which 

 was not fastened to the fish in any way. I take it 

 that this fish was lightly hooked and in the first run 

 the hook came away, caught the gut of the cast, thus 

 running it up into a noose, and the trout in its 

 struggles twisted itself up until it was literally 

 suffocated in the tight turns of the gut collar. Trout 

 have, in my own experience, been hooked outside 

 between the nostrils, two in the anal fin, one with 

 spent gnat in the right eye, the barb having pene- 

 trated the pupil, and one in the gills. This last does 

 seem to me almost inexplicable, because the hook 

 was fixed in the gills from the outside, and the only 

 possible solution that occurs to me is that it came 

 short, missed the fly, rolled over the gut, and the effect 

 of striking was to drive the hook into the gills which 

 were open at the moment for respiratory purposes. One 

 large grayling which I killed was hooked in the dorsal 

 fin, and cases of killing fish with the hook just outside 

 and close to the mouth have not been uncommon. 

 As soon as the angler feels that he has fastened he 



should, without a moment's 

 Procedure when the hesitation, put considerable 

 fish is hooked. strain on the fish and, if he 



can, turn its head downstream. 

 If he succeeds in doing this and at once starts walking 

 or running down, towing the trout after him, it is 

 astonishing how poor a chance the fish has. I know 

 that this sounds a risky proceeding, but the moment 

 after a fish is hooked it seems to take time to consider, 



