SALMON FISHING 115 



minutes the choice of a fresh dainty was offered, but all to no 

 purpose, until at last fourteen tasty morsels had been dangled 

 over his nose, and evening began to come. It was then our 

 turn to try with a fifteenth, but giving it up in disgust, Sir 

 Sandford had another cast, when he at once hooked and shortly 

 landed our stubborn friend — a nice fish of fourteen pounds. 



There is no doubt one of the great secrets of success is 

 perseverance, for any fairly good fisherman who will never 

 stop working, who will run from pool to pool, eating his lunch 

 while so doing, will kill more fish than a better angler who 

 thinks it is going to be a bad day, and takes it easy if he does 

 get a rise in the first pool he puts fly over. 



Keep the lure in the water all day, hold the point low, and 

 fish deep ; do not watch the point, but keep the eyes on the 

 spot where the fly is judged to be. By doing this a "boil" 

 will be seen which might escape notice if the eyes were on the 

 point of the rod, and when such is seen the fish can of course 

 be offered another fly. 



At times the gillie may be heard to say he is " Just thinking 

 it will be a gold day," or a "silver one," as the case may be, in 

 which case, unless the fisherman wishes to make his attendant 

 miserable, let him put on a fly with gold or silver tinsel, as may 

 be advised ; while, more often than not, the man's long experi- 

 ence of the state of the river and the atmosphere will prove 

 him to be in the right. Salmon are odd mixtures of shyness 

 and boldness, and their sight is extraordinarily quick. In clear 

 water we have often stood on bridges to drop small stones on 

 fish lying under them, when the fish has invariably seen the 

 stone coming and dashed off before it struck the water, though 

 in the course of a few minutes it would return to the place it 

 left. When a fish is seen to move, many anglers at once 

 conclude the resting spot is exactly beneath the splash ; as 

 a rule, it is some yards below and a little to one side of where 

 the water was broken. That very fish will, however, often take 

 the lure above where he showed, or even a good bit below, and 



