56 The Atlantic Salmon 



exerted against it by the current. So it is with a 

 line of length to which a salmon is attached. 

 Again, when a salmon after a run down or across 

 stream turns, runs up-stream and jumps, often 

 appearing yards above where you think he is, 

 he has to pull out of the water the weight of the 

 line between him and you which is " bellied " 

 by the current and by his course, and the angler, 

 though he have a strong pressure on the fish, 

 may not feel it any stronger when he jumps 

 three feet in the air. With a long bellied line 

 out, though it is advisable to follow this rule of 

 lowering the rod as the fish jumps, I don't believe 

 it is effective in reducing the strain a particle, as 

 the fish is back in the water again long before 

 the dipping of the rod could act on the line curv- 

 ing between the angler and the fish and pressed 

 downward through a long distance by a rapid 

 current. Enough salmon break loose in their 

 jumps to prove that on such occasions a much 

 stronger force than usual is brought against the 

 line, if there were no other way of demonstrating 

 this fact. Mr. Wells, in "Fly Rods and Fly 

 Tackle," gives some interesting and ingenious 

 experiments as to the strain exerted in pounds 

 and ounces by trout, which show it to be much 



