6o THE SALMON 



pounds — with an ordinary single-handed trout rod ; 

 but most of them in a river where the water was 

 exceptionally still, and the banks so clear that it was 

 everywhere easy to follow your fish. 



Probably it has fallen to the lot of most fishermen 

 of any wide experience to capture salmon with trout 

 tackle on more than one occasion. Kelts, of course, 

 in the spring are a regular nuisance to the trout fisher, 

 as they take the ordinary March brown or dun 

 greedily, and generally select the moment when there is 

 a fine rise of fly upon the water. Probably the wisest 

 course when one is hooked is to break ; but I hate to 

 do this on purpose, and have wasted many a half hour 

 pulling the ugly heavy brutes out of the water. 



The best of rods will break sometimes, if the fish 

 rise at a wrong angle, just as the line is coming out 

 of the water, or if the fly catches in something behind 

 you without your knowing it : and it is a most pro- 

 voking thing to find yourself by the side of a river 

 some miles from home, with fish rising well, and a 

 rod snapped off short at the ferrule with no sufficient 

 ends to splice. I now always have my rods made 

 with a spare second joint as well as three tops. It is 

 not a great additional expense, and gives a feeling of 

 security; besides, even if you are spared the crowning 

 calamity of an accident by the water side, it is always 



