396 THE ANGLER. 



in salmon fishing. The trout fisher's strike is fatal ; it 

 means either of two things: (1) pulling the fly away 

 before the fish has had time to get hold of it; or, (2) 

 and more frequently, leaving the fly in the fish's mouth. 

 With good angling, if the salmon means business, he 

 will hook himself. But there is one point that the angler 

 must bear in mind, i. e. that in salmon fishing he must 

 have no slack line between the fly and the top of the 

 rod. The fish generally rises at the fly when it is from 

 1 foot to 3 feet higher up stream than his own nose; 

 whether he takes it or not he swims back again to his 

 lie, and the rise seen by the angler is made by his tail 

 when he is on the turn back again. Occasionally rising 

 fish show their whole length out of water, but it is on 

 their downward course that they take the fly, and the 

 strike of the trout fisher or the involuntary jerk of the 

 excitable or nervous man pulls it away from them. 

 The fly, as we have seen, should be sunk 6 inches, there 

 should be little or no slack line, the rod should be held in 

 such a way that neither elbow nor body interferes with 

 the free action of the handle of the reel, and the line 

 should be felt between the first and second fingers of the 

 hand that is uppermost on the rod. The fish hooks itself, 

 and when the fisherman feels his weight on the line, then, 

 and not before, he should raise the top of his rod and 

 gradually, avoiding all jerks, give the fish all the pull 

 that his rod and tackle will stand without danger of 

 straining. This drives the hook over the barb in the 

 fish's mouth ; when he feels it, he probably runs out 20, 

 30, or 40 yards of line at express pace, and then throws 

 himself once or twice out of the water. In this first race 



