THE COMPLETE ANGLER 133 



my scholar, the observation of this and many other 

 things, I must in manners omit, because they will prove 

 too large for our narrow compass of time, and therefore 

 I shall next fall upon my directions how to fish for this 

 salmon. 



And for that, first you shall observe, that usually he 

 stays not long in a place, as trouts will, but, as I said, 

 covets still to go nearer the spring-head ; and that he 

 does not, as the trout and many other fish, lie near the 

 water-side, or bank, or roots of trees, but swims in 

 the deep and broad parts of the water,* and usually in the 

 middle, and near the ground, and that there you are to 

 fish for him, and that he is to be caught as the trout 



may be taken, in very small numbers in January, in what are con- 

 sidered the " early " salmon rivers of Ireland and Scotland. E. 



* The salmon, in coming up the estuaries, seldom swims in the 

 middle, but by the sides, and for that reason he is caught in the stake- 

 nets that project, some hundred yards, or more, into the tidal waters. 

 In rivers his haunts are various ; sometimes close by the banks, 

 in an eddy or little current, formed by rocks or roots ; sometimes 

 a little further out ; sometimes in the middle, or at the sides, of the 

 rapidly running tails of pools ; sometimes at their head ; sometimes 

 in the middle of deep or shallow currents. In fine, in any spot to 

 which the current or the chief strength of it, tends or diverges, 

 thereby bringing some sort of food to the salmon on the look out 

 for it. Two rocks, a yard or two apart, will form an angular current, 

 or a wedge-like one. At the point of the wedge, no matter whether 

 in the middle of the river, or by its sides, salmon surely lie, because 

 to that point insects, larvae, worms, and other food are washed, 

 sucked in at the head of the triangular rapid formed by the two 

 rocks. If a sharp-run is caused by a rock placed at a short distance 

 from the bank, the salmon will lie close by the inside of the rock, 

 or near the bank, or at the tail of the sharp-run. The precise lairs 

 of salmon in different rivers can only be known by experience. No 

 general rule respecting them will hold good. On first fishing a river, 

 you must have a guide a fisherman, born, as it were, on its banks 

 and he will show you what are called the best " salmon-casts." 

 Without such a guide, you will waste much time, by fishing likely- 

 looking spots, but which, from some cause or other unknown to you, 

 are not frequented by salmon ; and you will pass over, without fish- 

 ing them, unfavourable spots apparently, but where salmon lie, from 

 some cause also unknown to you. In the pools immediately above 

 waterfalls, or any difficult " salmon-leap," salmon very rarely take 

 the fly, or any other bait. They stop in these pools for the sake of 

 repose, and are disinclined to disturb it even for the sake of food. 

 To the non-local salmon-fisher a local guide is indispensable. E. 



