One spring day an Illinois Conservation Officer watched a fisherman

at Chicago s Montrose Harbor battle a huge coho salmon he had

hooked on a worm. After 15 minutes, the fisherman had the salmon

at his feet, iaying played out on its side by the Montrose breakwater.

The fisherman reached down, grabbed the line just up from the

hook, and started to draw the heavy fish toward him. Just then the

coho gave a final flop--and wriggled free. The fisherman s knot had

pulled loose at the hook!

"That was about the saddest thing I d ever seen," the warden

reported, "I m sure that coho was 20 or 22 pounds, the biggest fish

that guy had ever seen. Tears welled up in his eyes when he watched

that saJmon rorl away."

Another day a fly fisherman cast to the largest bone fish he d ever

seen on the flats at Great Exuma in the Bahamas. The fish inhaled

the fly and took off on a typical, lightning-fast bone fish run. Fly line

zipped through the guides; then came the backing; then everything

went slack. The knot connecting the fly line to the backing line didn t

hold--and not only did the saddened fisherman lose a prize bone

fish, but he also lost a $16 fly line.