THE SALMON. 37 



Verily, this is a wholesome way to hustle a Salmon that 

 sulks! It holds over any scheme that I ever struck on this 

 side of the Atlantic. But Parker Gilmore has been over a 

 great deal perhaps he happened on it here. This is all very 

 well to start the fish, but the trouble would be to stop him. 

 This hint about holding the rod up reminds me that a differ- 

 ent practice is required for river Salmon than for land-locked 

 fish. I am convinced that anglers who have tried for the 

 latter without success have habitually cast too long a line. 

 Following the approved mode in rapid-stream fishing and 

 broken water, they have laid their lines straight out, and 

 kept the point of the rod nearly touching the water. This is 

 wrong. On dead water a short line is requisite; the rod 

 should be kept almost perpendicular, so that the fly can trail 

 on the very top surface; and the cast should be made straight 

 out in front. Not more than six feet of the gut-length 

 should touch the water at any time. Why? Because the 

 water is so still, even when rippled by a flaw of wind, that 

 the line laying its length along the water looks like a cable. 

 The fish are so busy investigating the phenomenon of the 

 line that they don't mind the fly. Perhaps they don't see it 

 at all. To attract his attention the point of the rod should 

 be pumped up and down. This will move the fly a foot or 

 more at each motion. Sometimes it is well to draw the line 

 through the rings with the left hand while working the point 

 of the rod, which answers the like purpose. The whole pro- 

 cess is exceedingly delicate. Experienced anglers will appre- 

 ciate the difficulty of fastening to a rise with an almost per- 

 pendicular rod, while the liability of breaking the tip, in case 

 of a strike, is very great. The only way is not to strike when 

 a Salmon rises, but to let him pull the point of the rod down 

 three or four feet, and then fix the hook in his jaw by a 

 gentle lifting of the rod so as to bring the line taut. There is 

 no method of fishing prettier than this, when one gets used 

 to it. It beats skittering with a spoon all hollow. 



