line loose. This is called playing the 
fish. 
Thrashing about, tugging at the string, 
the salmon fights fiercely to be free. 
But even so glorious a fighter must tire 
at last. He becomes weaker and weaker. 
At last he can struggle no more. Slowly 
the fisherman draws him close to the 
boat, and takes him with a landing net. 
Sometimes the salmon gets away. He 
breaks the line or tears himself from 
the hook. When this happens, many 
fishermen are angry. But the better 
ones say that if a salmon is a good enough 
fighter to free himself, he deserves a 
cheer from all true sport fishermen. 
Many a salmon battle has gone down 
in fishermen’s history. There’s the story 
of the Atlantic salmon that was caught 
late one afternoon as he swam up a 
certain river. He battled all night and 
all of the next day, dashing madly up 
and down the stream. The first fisher- 
44 : ; 
