SALMON FISHING 



' f ■ ^HE salmon,' wrote Leonard Mascall in 1590, ' is a 



I gentle fish, but he is cumbrous to take. Com- 



I monly he is but in deepe places of great rivers 



and commonly in the middest of the river : he is 



in season from March unto Michaelmas and ye shall angle to 



him with a red worme from the beginning to the ending and 



with the bobbe worme that breedeth in the du[n]ghill : also 



there is a soveraigne baite that breedeth on the water docke ; 



the salmon biteth not at the ground but at the flote or above : 



ye may also take him with the dubbe worme (fly ?) at such 



time when he leapeth, but it hath seldom seen and ye shall 



take him in like manner as ye do take the Trout or Grayling 



or the Dace.' 



It is hard to resist the conviction that ]\Iascall, having 

 angled to a salmon, achieved small success : the directness 

 of that opening remark suggests the baffled angler laying his 

 rod aside. 



Nor do the writings of Walton indicate that he had much 

 acquaintance with the sport. When he speaks of salmon 

 tackle and salmon habit, his observations do not imply personal 

 experience : ' Note also that many use to fish for a salmon 

 with a ring of wire on the top of their rod, through which the 

 line may run to as great length as is needful when he is hooked. 

 And to that end some use a wheel about the middle of their 

 rod or near their hand which is to be observed better by seeing 

 one of them than by large demonstration of words.' Again ; 

 the salmon ' is seldom observed to bite at a minnow, yet some- 

 times he will, and not usually at a fly.' In this last observa- 

 tion he is not at one with General Robert Venables, whose 

 ' Experiene'd Angler ' he so warmly approved, and with whom 



165 



