THE SALMON. 35 



In a colored river, the shallowest parts should be fished, be- 

 cause the fish can see better there than in deep water. An 

 old angler, in one of the English sporting papers, observes 

 that "many young anglers raise a great many fish and fail to 

 hook them. Even some long-experienced anglers get into 

 this habit, and never get out of it. The reason of this is, 

 they cast too straight across the stream, and keep the point 

 of their rod too high. The fly travels round too fast, and 

 the fish make a dash at it and fail to catch it. The fly 

 should go straight out, the cast should be made well down 

 the river, the point of the rod kept nearly touching the 

 water, and the fly allowed to sink well down. The rod 

 should be worked slowly when the fly has nearly come over 

 the cast." 



This is the correct talk when feeling for a fish: keep the 

 point of the rod down, but when a fish is on, keep it up. 

 I am glad to quote here what Mr. E. M. Tod, an angler of 

 world-wide reputation, has to say in the London Fishing 

 Gazette, by way of instruction as to how to handle a Salmon 

 when hooked. He says: 



"First of all, hold your rod pointing upward, so as to bring 

 the spring of it to bear with all its power on the fish; then 

 'hang on' to the fish, and do not let him have any more 

 line than you can possibly help, as the less line there is 

 between you and the fish, the better for you, and the worse 

 for your quarry, as if there is much line out it may get foul of 

 some obstacle, and the force of the current will put a heavy 

 strain on. If the fish is determined to run, he will take 

 line, and, should he take to somersaulting at each jump, the 

 line must be quite loose, and the rod's point dipped; but in 

 any other case it is best not to give a foot of line, provided 

 the rod be kept upward, as no rod (or at any rate no ordi- 

 nary rod) can put on more strain than three or four pounds; 

 so there is little or no danger of a break. In this manner 

 many a little fish of not more than six or seven pounds weight 



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