FISHING AS A SPORT 



Hitherto we have only considered the fortunes of the 

 man who fly-fishes a river from the bank. Many sports- 

 men would consider this tame work, preferring the ex- 

 citement of wading waist-deep up a mountain stream in 

 Norway that has no tow-path ; in the rocky beds of the 

 Jotunfield streams or lakes, for instance, where the water 

 is walled in by sharp crags, and cut off from the rest of 

 the world by snowy mountain-peaks. Such beds suit 

 salmon that are of a sulky turn of mind ; for they can 

 lie between a couple of large stones, or in an unsuspected 

 hollow that leads abruptly out of the shallows, and 

 meditate to their hearts' content. Nowhere, in fact, if 

 they can help it, will these fish stop to rest on a smooth, 

 shallow bottom, any more than they will remain in long, 

 straggling streams that begin and end nowhere, as one 

 may say ; a short, rapid, broken-bedded stream leading to a 

 lake, or not far from the sea, is an ideal ground for them. 



In fishing among the rocks and sunken tree-roots, many 

 anglers consider a mussel, cockle, or prawn a very killing 

 bait. An unweighted line is cast into the meeting point 

 of two currents formed by rocks that stand opposite each 

 other, or into the shallows near a hole, and is allowed to 

 be carried by the force of the water among the stones or 

 over where the salmon lies in hiding. In all probability 

 the fish will not be able to resist the temptation long, for 

 the angler is offering it the kind of food on which it was 

 wont to fatten while in the sea. All in a moment the 

 line is jerked furiously and the salmon springs with all 

 its force out of the water, drops again, and dives back 

 among the hollows or stones. At such a time it behoves 

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