BAIT FOR SALMON. 101 



flies ; and the angler will find from experience that light- 

 coloured and showy bodies, and grey-coloured wings, are 

 never-failing instruments of success. This principle, it is 

 true, may be modified in a variety of ways, but it can 

 never be entirely departed from without mortification or 

 disappointment. 



When the salmon takes the fly, the angler must imme- 

 diately give him line, and particularly bear in mind that 

 the slightest degree of rashness at this crisis will set him 

 at liberty in an instant. No matter how seasoned or how 

 strong your tackle may be, no one can ever succeed in 

 turning a salmon when he is first hooked. It is only by 

 giving him comparatively gentle tugs, or letting him 

 feel the weight and pressure of the line at short intervals, 

 that you can make him rush about backwards and for- 

 wards so as to exhaust his strength. 



The most unreserved patience is here absolutely indis- 

 pensable. Many fish will require unremitting care and 

 skill for two or three hours before they will yield; and 

 few of any size can be landed as they ought to be in less 

 than an hour. When the river the angler is fishing has 

 a broad shelving bed on each side the stream, between 

 the water and the banks, and there are no trees nor 

 bushes to hamper and perplex his operations, then his 

 work is comparatively easy and expeditious. But, on the 

 contrary, when the river is narrow in its channel, and 

 fills it completely up, and when trees and brushwood 

 abound, it is always a work of difficulty and extreme un- 

 certainty to kill a large salmon with a fly; and if the 

 bottom of the stream be full of roots of trees, large stones 

 and reeds, the case becomes still more desperate and 

 hopeless. 



When the fish bounds repeatedly out of the water, the 



