Salmon Fishing. 135 



There is little to learn about them, and the fish nearly all play 

 pretty much alike, and if the hook be ^611 in it is just a question 

 of time and skill. But on the Erne, where you must wade — and often 

 deeply — in places and streams where a false step or a stumble might cost 

 you your life, where every cast is widely different in character, where on 

 some casts hidden dangers of every kind abound, and where the most 

 ordinary stream is deep, strong, rapid, and rocky ; where several of the 

 pools are just above falls or most wild and dangerous rapids, down 

 which your fish is just as likely to plunge as not, you never can count 

 on killing your fish until you have him on the bank. 



" Yes, sirree, the Erne is a great cigar among salmon rivers. And then the 

 fish run so good, the bulk of them scaling from 141b. to 201b — just the best 

 size for sport, not that I take any special objection to a thirty-pounder ; but, 

 as a rule, he is not quite so light, active, and lively as a fish of half his size. 

 Now, there is one thing in salmon fishing that always riles me. Eellows will 

 always so mix up bounce with fact. " Thei/ never lose a fish," bless you; 

 " Thei/ can do their five-and- thirty yards from the reel;" and all that sort 

 of stuff. Now, I don't care to read accounts where the author is always 

 having such exceptional good sport, and always making big bags and big 

 brags, and never having any bad luck at all. It is not new, and it is not 

 true. As a salmon fisher, I am, as a rule, as successful as most people; 

 but I can't get on without a plentiful share of bad as well as good luck, and 

 that would be the general experience if anglers would only tell the truth. 



I have had some very fine fights with salmon on the Erne, some that 

 had unusual incidents attached to them. One of the most striking contests 

 I ever had was in a throw called the "Doctor's Throw." This cast is, situated 

 at the very mouth of the river. The Erne falls over a ledge of rocks into 

 the sea, making a magnificent spectacle. When the tide is quite low this 

 fall is something like fifteen or sixteen feet or more in height, but when the 

 tide is high this is reduced to some six or seven. At this time the leaping 

 of the salmon at the fall is incessant, and salmon from 101b. to 201b. 

 each may be seen hurling themselves out of the water by the score. Eish 

 after fish will haply miss his leap, and be dashed back again by the falling 

 torrent ; but every now and then one strikes fairly on the bend where the 



