170 ON ANGLING; 



Kanger, Fairy, Donkey, and for late evening 

 fishing, a whitish or yellowish fly. There used 

 to be made some years ago a fly called the " spar- 

 row," which was very good for this purpose. 

 When salmon are willing to rise, they will do so at 

 anything that resembles a fly. I have caught them 

 on almost bare hooks, and on flies that I roughly 

 tied myself and that resembled no particular pat- 

 tern. When a stretch of water has been fished 

 over day after day with standard flies without 

 success, a nondescript fly may hook or rise a fish. 

 So much for the caprice of salmon! When not 

 disposed to rise, as generally happens towards 

 the end of the season, in July and August, neither 

 the prettiest nor the gaudiest flies will tempt 

 them. The temperature of the water affects 

 them very much. Anything under 60 Fahren- 

 heit, is favorable, and the chances of success 

 diminish in proportion as that is exceeded. 



In regard to the relative merits of the double 

 hooked or single hooked fly, my experience is that 

 more fish will be hooked with the double one, but 

 given a fixed quantity of fish hooked the propor- 

 tion lost will be less with the single hooked fly, 

 as this last, when it does fasten in a fish, has gen- 

 erally a good hold. Scratches and light hooking 

 are faults common with the double hook. 



Casting. Anyone capable of casting thirty 

 to forty feet of line in a decent manner, has a 

 good chance to hook a salmon. It is not given to 



