5 o THE SALMON 



on the butt of the rod. If all resources fail, there is 

 nothing for it but patience ; and I have known the 

 fish to yield to the strain at last, and come quite 

 gradually and steadily to the top of the water, just 

 when I was becoming convinced that the line was 

 fixed round a rock or stump, or one of those terrible 

 bits of wire-fencing which are always falling into 

 some rivers that I know, as the crumbling and over- 

 hanging banks give way after a spate ; and reluctantly 

 making up my mind to break and have done with it. 



But how if a fish seems quite determined to run 

 out of the pool into broken water, or straight to some 

 dangerous obstacle, perhaps under the archway of 

 some bridge, where you cannot follow him ? Well, if 

 he must, he must, and every fisherman's experience 

 will tell of salmon lost in spite of all that skill and 

 patience could do. But usually there is a moment 

 of hesitation before the desperate passage, as no 

 salmon likes to leave his pool. At such times do 

 not reel up line, but, keeping the strain as steady as 

 possible, walk backwards up the stream. I have 

 often known a fish under such circumstances to allow 

 himself to be led for a considerable distance from 

 the point of danger, when a turn of the handle of the 

 reel would probably have been the signal for an 

 onward rush and a broken cast. 



