Hours for Angling 139 



the cast is finished. Why these fish so seldom 

 take the fly, though they sometimes do, it is 

 hard to tell, unless they become alarmed as they 

 approach it by reason of its unusual and more 

 violent motion and its nearness to the surface. 

 Indeed, most of these rises are made near the 

 canoe when the fly is on the surface and moving 

 rather rapidly. As they are generally unexpected 

 by the angler, he cannot quickly enough stop the 

 motion of the fly. The rare cases in which I 

 have hooked fish thus rising have been those in 

 which I had enough presence of mind to stop 

 reeling at the first sign of a rise, and even let 

 out a yard or so of line in order to sink the fly a 

 little and allow it to drop down-stream. By so 

 doing I have induced a salmon to make another 

 dash at the fly and get it. Salmon rising in this 

 way and missing can very seldom be made to 

 come again after resting them. 



When a salmon rises at a fly and misses it in 

 a pool with a level bottom, it is impossible to 

 know just where he started from or where he 

 will settle after he goes down. Consequently the 

 angler, after resting him, should begin fishing with 

 the same fly, or one a size smaller, and this latter 

 is advisable in case the rise was not a strong one, 



