Chapt. vi. Mors etfugacem persequitur virum. 83 



let it peep into every little nook and cranny likely to hold 

 a big fish. 



But perhaps you may see a big fish eyeing your bait, 

 what is to be done then? You feel disposed to cease pull- 

 ing it away from him, and to let him have a better look 

 at it. The first impulse is to stop altogether, and wait 

 for him. Such a course would be fatal. Spin quietly 

 on as if you had not seen him. If he has already sus- 

 pected your bait, you will not mend matters by letting 

 it fall dead before him. But if on the contrary he is 

 simply eyeing it, to see if it gives him a fair opportunity 

 for surprising it at a spring, then let that opportunity 

 appear, by continuing its listless dawdling motion in the 

 same direction, and the chances are he will make up his 

 mind with a promptitude that will astonish you; and so 

 sudden will be his dash that, before you have well seen 

 him move, you will feel he has taken your bait. But if 

 he does not, try him again with another throw or two, 

 bringing your bait by him in different ways, but not too 

 obtrusively. I remember one of the first times I tested 

 these tactics. Two decent fish of the perch family were 

 deliberately following my bait. They were side by side, 

 and about a yard behind my bait, but they kept on fol- 

 lowing it deliberately, and eyeing it intently without offer- 

 ing to come a bit nearer. "Oh my heart went pit a pat, 

 pit a pat," but I screwed it down resolutely, and I be- 

 thought me what should I do now if I was a nice little 

 fish, with two great ugly brutes like that behind me. 

 Why, if I knew it, I should bolt like mad instanter, and 



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