There were no rocks down stream, all was fair play and
clear water, and away he went at racing pace straight for the
middle of the river. To check the pace, I grasped the line with
the stuff of my loose trousers, and pressed it between my fingers
so as to act as a break, and compel him to labour for every yard;
but he pulled like a horse, and nearly cut through the thick
cotton cloth, making straight running for at least a hundred
yards without a halt. I now put so severe a strain upon him, that
my strong bamboo bent nearly double, and the fish presently so
far yielded to the pressure, that I could enforce his running in
half circles instead of straight away. I kept gaining line, until
I at length led him into a shallow bay, and after a great fight,
Bacheet embraced him by falling upon him, and clutching the
monster with hands and knees; he then tugged to the shore a
magnificent fish of upwards of sixty pounds. For about twenty
minutes he had fought against such a strain as I had never before
used upon a fish, but I had now adopted hooks of such a large
size and thickness that it was hardly possible for them to break,
unless snapped by a crocodile. My reel was so loosened from the
rod, that had the struggle lasted a few minutes longer I must
have been vanquished.
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