Trusting to the
soundness of my tackle, I struck hard and fixed my new
acquaintance thoroughly, but off he dashed down the stream for
about fifty yards at one rush, making for a narrow channel
between two rocks, through which the stream ran like a mill-race.
Should he pass this channel, I knew he would cut the line across
the rock; therefore, giving him the butt, I held him by main
force, and by the great swirl in the water I saw that I was
bringing him to the surface; but just as I expected to see him,
my float having already appeared, away he darted in another
direction, taking sixty or seventy yards of line without a check.
I at once observed that he must pass a shallow sandbank
favourable for landing a heavy fish; I therefore checked him as
he reached this spot, and I followed him down the bank, reeling
up line as I ran parallel with his course. Now came the tug of
war! I knew my hooks were good and the line sound, therefore I
was determined not to let him escape beyond the favourable
ground; and I put a strain upon him, that after much struggling
brought to the surface a great shovel-head, followed by a pair of
broad silvery sides, as I led him gradualhy into shallow water.
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