48 STRIKING AT, AND HOOKING SALMON. 



of salmon-fishing that ignoble word. When I 

 feel the slight "tug," — aye, that's the right 

 word, — I allow a second or so to elapse; and 

 then, lifting the point of my rod, I make a short, 

 smart, jerking motion backwards with the wrists, 

 and I generally find that I have hooked my 

 aquatic quarry. Every man almost, at the be- 

 ginning of the season, is nervous ; and I will ask 

 the oldest salmon-fisher if he do not then lose 

 many a fish by his precipitation in striking ? He 

 becomes steady in a day or two, his eye and hand 

 become ready, and he manages the latter with 

 veteran coolness and delicacy. The general rule 

 for striking laid down by others is as follows : 

 salmon do not jump at a fly like trout, but rise 

 up at it and take it under water; in doing so, 

 they cause a break in the surface ; and, having 

 taken the fly, they turn round to descend to the 

 bottom with it, and this motion causes the break 

 on the water's surface to contract. The moment 

 the contraction takes place is the time for striking, 

 for then the fish is supposed to have the fly fairly 

 withinside its lips. I have no objection to this 

 rule, except that it is not easy for the beginner 

 to observe and practise it : as for myself, I con- 

 fess that I frequently strike at and hook fish 

 without, as far as I can conceive, any premedita- 



