JULY 181 



has happened : either the rod has been dragged or allowed 

 to fall into something approaching straight with the line ; 

 or the fish has succeeded in getting a pull or making a 

 leap against a fixed point between him and his would-be 

 captor. Such a fixed point may be caused by the line 

 getting foul of an obstacle under water, or by getting 

 ' drowned ' — i.e. when a great length of it bags deep and 

 down-stream, and the fish runs up-stream and jumps. 



The thing is easily proved. Hook your fly to a spring- 

 balance in the hand of another : I '11 give you a guinea if 

 you can pull the index down to 4 lb. with your rod, and 

 keep it there. Sandow himself could do no more; the 

 law of dynamics (of which, s'entend, I am profoundly 

 ignorant) is against it. Three or four pounds, therefore, 

 is the maximum pressure any man can put on a fish with 

 his rod, even though he feels that his own muscles are 

 strained to their utmost; but 3 lb. rightly applied to a 

 20 or 30 lb. fish must win in the end, if the hook hold. 

 But the pressure must be rightly applied. Stand with 

 a fish down-stream and pull straight at him — you may 

 spend half a day and be no nearer landing him; but 

 make the pressure lateral — get opposite or below him — 

 and you pull him off his balance: he must leave his 

 lodge and run for his life. 



These tactics soon brought me on better terms with my 

 maritime friend. The thin backing was all recovered; 

 just as the first of the fifty yards of head-line was coming 

 on the reel, a sudden thought seemed to strike him — ' I '11 

 be off to sea again.' Away he went, this time not across 

 but down stream : I could not follow him on foot, for the 

 bank was fringed with alders; before I could take ship 

 again he was in the swift water at the tail of the pool. 



