Then the patient work would begin again.

The man's temper was more than a match for that of the victim, and, exhausted and despondent, the fish would, sooner or later, have to submit to the inexorable.
How long it might have gone on Fisher could never tell; for once, when victory seemed on the point of declaring for the angler, and the shining fins of the fish floundered despairingly almost within his reach, a downward dash nearly wrenched the rod from his hands and sent him sprawling on to the thwarts.

The sudden lurch of the boat was too much for the ill-tied rope, and to Fisher's horror the noose gave way and sent boat and fisherman spinning down the rapids at five miles an hour.
Rollitt either did not notice the accident or was too engrossed to heed it.

He still had his fish, though as far off as before, and once more the tedious task of coaxing him out of his tantrums was to begin over again.

It was useless to shout.