110 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
chance of success much lessened. At all costs 
get him out of the stream. 
When that is done, the first stage of the battle 
is over. Once out of the stream, a dorado 
usually does not try to get back, or, if he does, 
you can stop him. He tries other tactics. Of 
course there are exceptions. I remember one 
fish which beat me. I was fishing from the 
bank alone, with no boat near. I hooked a big 
one, and the only place to land him was a small 
patch of slow water, not fifteen yards across, 
right below the rock where I was standing. I 
got him into this, and I swore to myself that he 
should break me before he got out. But I could 
not hold him : he literally tore the line through 
my fingers, whizzed into the stream and got off, 
leaving the spoon jammed in a rock. But that 
was an exception. Usually they try other 
methods. They bore and sail about, swimming 
deep, refusing to show. They are unbelievably 
strong. This stage is much more difficult and 
nerve-racking than the first. You have a great 
fish, forty pounds weight, quite close to you. 
You can see him, not ten yards off, a bronze 
shadow through the agate water, your first 
forty pounder perhaps; and nothing you can do 
brings him any nearer. This may go on for a 
long time. I have known it last over an hour, 
through no fault of the fisher, who indeed held 
that particular fish so hard that the rod never 
recovered. But, long or short, the same rule 
