A SALMON LOCH IN SUTHERLAND 117 
extraordinary skill and speed with which Sandy 
followed him and managed the boat. Three 
times nearly all my line was taken out, and once 
I had only a few inches left on my reel. After his 
first rush the fish plunged deep down, and for a 
time adopted boring tactics. I was able to recover 
most of the line he had taken out, and then he 
made another run and a jump, and for some time 
after that we followed him over the loch. On 
two occasions he made the most determined 
efforts to get into some weeds, and it was only by 
keeping a very severe strain upon him that I 
managed to keep clear of them. I never played a 
fish which jumped so many times or sulked less. 
On one occasion, after taking a large amount of 
my line, he suddenly turned and headed straight 
back again for the boat, and although Sandy did 
all he could to keep out of his way, the fish 
startled us at the end of his mad run by jump- 
ing suddenly clean out of the water within three 
or four yards of the boat, and falling with a 
tremendous splash. 
Do what I could I did not seem to have 
any real effect on the fish, who seemed to do 
almost exactly as he liked with me, except on 
the two occasions when he tried to get into the 
