124 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



blank day was converted into a red-letter one ; for, on the 

 lower reaches of the Dee, it is a very rare event to take 

 five clean fish on a spring day below Banchory Bridge, and 

 we doubt if it has ever been done again. 



We once made a very remarkable catch of a fourteen- 

 pound fish out of the " Sandy Havens," on the Kineskie water 

 of the Dee, landing the same without a hook in it! This 

 fish gave a splendid run, and on eventually being gaffed we 

 discovered it was not hooked at all ; the minnow had swung 

 under one of the pectoral fins, and the triangle catching over 

 the line had made a loop, which had drawn so tight that it 

 took us longer to disentangle than if the hook had been in 

 the usual place. 



Salmon may also be taken with dace, gudgeon, bleak, par, 

 prawns boiled and unboiled, shrimps and worms, as well as 

 by all sorts of artificial minnows and spoons ; but neither by 

 a mock representation of prawn or worm have we ever heard 

 of an authenticated capture. Of all these different lures, the 

 natural minnow is the most killing (when it kills at all) and the 

 prettiest to use. 



The rod should be of greenheart throughout, not too stiff, 

 and from fourteen to fifteen feet in length ; the rings of course 

 upright, with the top and bottom ones of revolving steel, 

 whereby much wear of the line is saved. 



The reel should be large enough to take some seventy 

 yards of "stuffing," together with a hundred yards of the 

 so-called American line, size letter F, for though the material 

 of which the " M. C. & Co." lines are made comes from 

 America, the lines themselves, we believe, are made in 

 Glasgow — and none the worse for that, as we have imported 

 them from America, to find them no better. They are 

 not expensive, twelve shillings and sixpence for the hundred 

 yards ; but the longer they are kept in store before being 

 used the better they wear, as lapse of time hardens the 

 dressing. They are, however, necessarily so thin that a few 



