FISHING AS A SPORT 



netting, though it ends at the same date ; ninety-two 

 days is the minimum. As many salmon do not spend 

 more than two or three months out of the twelve in the 

 sea, the angler has about half the year wherein to pursue 

 his sport. 



Two typical salmon countries are Ireland and Norway, 

 though their rivers have little in common, for those of 

 Ireland flow through a country that, in comparison with 

 Norway, is flat and even, and they have very little of the 

 mountain-torrent about them. Norway, on the other 

 hand, is a land of strong-current rivers, often marked by 

 waterfalls and cascades, where only the strenuous fisher 

 will dream of angling. Scotland as a salmon country has 

 been discussed in the last chapter; for sport most men 

 prefer it to Ireland. 



Salmon tackle varies much, according to the use that is 

 going to be made of it. Are you going to fish from a 

 boat on a lake, or from the bank of a river ; or are you 

 prepared to don thigh- boots and be almost washed off 

 your feet by the torrent, and possibly get a box on the 

 ears from a jumping salmon ? 



The rod used is generally seventeen or eighteen feet 

 long, with ashen butt, the two middle joints of hickory, 

 and the top one of a tough, elastic West Indian wood, 

 commonly known as lance-wood. The line, which, of 

 course, may be of any length, is made of specially pre- 

 pared oiled silk, or of a mixture of silk and horse-hair ; 

 the casting-line usually about nine feet long is of twisted 

 gut, and tapers towards the end. One angler will carry 

 fifty yards of line, another a hundred; for boat-fishing 



74 



