244 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



add the destruction by means of rake-hooks. The 

 tackle is very simple : it consists of two strong- 

 hooks, about two or three inches long, tied back to 

 back, and fastened to twisted gut, on which are 

 put five or six large shot, at equal distances from 

 each other. The fisherman, with a strong rod, 

 throws the line, with these bare hooks attached to 

 it, about a foot beyond any salmon that he may 

 discover lying, and then with a sudden jerk draws 

 the hook into him if he can, and gets him to the 

 land if he is able. 1 



Clean fish are sometimes taken in this manner, 

 and most fishermen are provided with the tackle. 

 In a very low water in the summer, when fly-fishing 

 might have been said to be over, I once hooked a 

 good salmon in the Quarry stream above Melrose 

 Bridge. As a fish was at that time a great rarity, 

 I was particularly cautious in leading him ; never- 

 theless, with all my care, the hook, not having a 

 firm hold, came away from him after I had played 

 him a considerable time. 



Purdie saw him lying in rather an exhausted 

 state in the same stream, which was shallow, and, 

 without saying anything to me, to my great 

 surprise, seized hold of my casting line and broke 

 off the lower end of it ; opened my book ; took a 

 pair of rake -hooks from it ; tied them on to the 

 line, and, at the second throw, tucked them into 

 the salmon ; put the rod into my hands, and I 

 killed the fish after all. 



1 This is another of these nefarious devices for persecuting salmon, 

 happily now illegal, but described by Scrope with perfect complacency. 

 —Ed. 



