This is what the boatmen enjoy--though it often means longer hours and more severe rowing--for it is far easier to work (so they say) for a "fare" who is really interested than for one who is halfhearted and indifferent.
As these rivals' boats pass each other they call out in triumph their rising luck, or listen gloweringly to the recital of others' good fortune, when they are compelled to silence because of their own failure.
Sometimes the boatmen find these rivalries rather embarrassing, for the excitement and nervousness of their "fares" become communicated to them.

Then, perhaps, they lose a promising strike, or, in their hurry, fail to land the fish when it appears.

Scolding and recriminations are not uncommon on such occasions, and thus is the gayety of nations added to.
What is it that really constitutes "fisherman's luck"?
Who can tell?
The theories of Tahoe fishermen are as many as there are men.

Some think one thing, some another.

One will talk learnedly of the phases of the moon, another of the effect of warmer or colder weather upon the "bugs" upon which the fish feed.
Sometimes one will "jerk" half a day and never get a strike; other days the boat will scarcely have left the wharf before one pulls the fish in almost as fast as hooks can be baited and thrown out.