TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
just little ones weighing a couple of pounds apiece.
Tut out any time you want,' I told Johnson.
He put on his belt and his harness and put out the
big rod with the Hardy reel with six hundred yards
of thirty-six thread. I looked back and his bait was
trolling nice, just bouncing along on the swell, and
the two teasers were diving and jumping. We were
going just about the right speed and I headed her
into the stream.
'Keep the rod butt in the socket on the chair,' I
told him. 'Then the rod won't be as heavy. Keep
the drag off so you can slack to him when he hits. If
one ever hits with the drag on he'll jerk you over-
board.'
Every day I'd have to tell him the same thing,
but I didn't mind that. One out of fifty parties you
get know how to fish. Then when they do know half
the time they're goofy and want to use line that isn't
strong enough to hold anything big.
'How does the day look?' he asked me.
'It couldn't be better/1 told him. It was a pretty
day all right.
I gave die nigger the wheel and told him to work
along the edge of the stream to the eastward and
went back to where Johnson was sitting watching his
bait bouncing along.
'Want me to put out another rod?' I asked him.
'I don't think so/ he said. 'I want to hook, fight,
and land my fish myself.
'Good,' I said. 'Do you want Eddy to put it
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