3?6 MODERN SEA FISHING 



few places at which they have been caught in salt water. As 

 a general rule salmon are too scattered to afford much sport. 

 Compared with other sea fish, they are certainly scarce, and, 

 all things considered, this is not surprising. Where they of 

 necessity collect and are wedged up together, as in Loch Roag, 

 Island of Lewis, a very long and narrow inlet, the angler has 

 his finest opportunity. But in the broad mouths of great rivers 

 the fisherman may toil all day and perhaps not present his fly 

 to a single fish. 



In America and Canada enormous runs of salmon occur, 

 the fish being swept up by means of revolving traps arranged 

 something after the fashion of a watermill wheel, thence 

 turned down a trough, knocked on the head, and ultimately 

 canned. The fish are in such enormous numbers as to afford 

 very fine sport at the mouths of these fruitful rivers, particu- 

 larly in Vancouver, where quantities are caught on spoons and 

 similar baits both by sportsmen and the Indians. There, I 

 take it, the sport results mainly from the quantity of the fish 

 and their concentration in one particular part of the sea. If it 

 should ever happen that, thanks to wiser laws than at present 

 exist, coupled with their proper enforcement, our rivers should 

 be freed from pollution and restocked by means of fish culture, 

 then, I imagine, there would be many more places in which 

 the sea angler might have an opportunity of plying his art on 

 the king of anadromous fishes. 



I should, however, mention here that on many rocks there 

 is a tradition that salmon will not rise in the tidal pools, re- 

 fusing the fly until they have reached fresh water. Sea trout, 

 on the other hand, rise freely in brackish water. 



SEA TROUT appear to hang about the coastline all through 

 the summer, lying close to the rocks in the shelter of over- 

 hanging weeds, and may be caught in two to four feet of water. 

 They are, too, far more plentiful than salmon. If in consider- 



