138 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



the water and because the water in which he lies gener- 

 ally has a broken surface, but he has his eyes, for all 

 that. And you may remember, too, that you fish for 

 him from above ; that is to say, that as he lies in the 

 water his head and eyes are towards you ; he has 

 that much the better chance of seeing you than the 

 trout to which you cast up-stream. I do not want to give 

 you any precise instructions on this point ; only I do want 

 to suggest to you that you should use your intelligence in 

 regard to it. A vast number of anglers show so little intelli- 

 gence in this regard ; and I am convinced that they have 

 lost very many salmon which might have been added to their 

 bags because they have gone to work as if the fish were blind, 

 and have scared them away before they began to fish for them. 

 I may point out to you that though we speak of the 

 salmon " fly " as of the trout " fly," it is scarcely to be thought 

 that any angler imagines that the salmon takes this so-called 

 fly because of its resemblance to any winged insect. A 

 much better name for it is " lure," which has no deceptive 

 description about it. If the ordinary salmon fly looks 

 like any of the aquatic creatures, it must surely be some of the 

 iridescent crustaceans, and we may suppose that the move- 

 ment of the lure at the end of the line, now stopping a moment, 

 then suddenly darting on, and fighting across the current 

 of the stream all the while, must be rather like that of a 

 shrimp or prawn propelling itself by jumps. It is quite 

 useful to remember what we imagine the lure to look like 

 in the salmon's eyes, because we then, almost instinctively, 

 do our best to impart to it that movement which shall make it 

 most lifelike and most attractive. And, so saying, I touch 

 the edge of a mightily fierce discussion, some arguing that 

 you ought to " work " the fly constantly, with an up and down 

 or see-saw movement, others that you should let it go with the 

 current and do nothing. I venture on no dogmatic opinion ; 

 the more so that I am aware that on the Northesk River 

 were two professional fishermen — river keepers — of whom 

 one was an extremist of the cult* of " working the fly," the 

 other no less extreme in his conviction that you could never 

 catch a fish unless you let the fly come round " naturally," 

 as he said. It was always found, at the end of the year, as 



