144 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



sait tuer un saumon par raison demonstrative ? " 

 At this good humour returned, and each party 

 fished the rest of the day according to the angles 

 that best suited his fancy, without let or argument. 



Now in holding your fly on a rough stream 

 you must advance your arms, and bring your rod 

 straight across the river, consequently your line 

 hanging straight down the stream may form a right 

 angle at the point of your rod, and so you should 

 work it in this instance ; but in most other cases I 

 prefer the obtuse angle. As to the argument — 

 lis avoient raison tons deux. 



In hooking a rising fish, it is best to strike a 

 little sideways, that the hook may fasten in the 

 fleshy part of the mouth ; whereas, if you pull 

 straight up, you are apt to encounter the upper or 

 bony part ; or if the fish has not closed his jaws, and 

 fairly turned off, you may pull the fly away from 

 him too soon, to the disappointment of both parties. 

 As a proof of this, if it does not appear sufficiently 

 obvious, I appeal to any one, who has tried it, to 

 say whether or not it is an easy matter to hook a 

 rising fish, the experimentalist being stationed on a 

 high bridge. 



Sometimes, however, when a salmon is clean run, 

 and in high glee, you can scarcely miss him, strike 

 which way you will. 



I remember fishing at the Troughs, under the 

 auspices of Rob Kerse, early in the spring, before a 

 clean fish had been caught there that season. I 

 stood over one of those gorges where an immense 

 volume of water, pent up in a narrow passage, rolls 

 furiously between its rocky barriers. Here I fixed 



