FISHING AS A SPORT 



True, the talk about having " an angler's eye " is not all 

 cant ; but generally the man who is observant over the 

 things of everyday life will be so over his sports: in- 

 tuitive knowledge alone never yet caught a salmon, 

 though with luck added it might. 



The complete salmon-fisher is the man who knows 

 properly where and how to throw his fly, how to control 

 it when it is in the river, how to hook the fish when he 

 comes within reach, and finally how to manage and play 

 him till he is landed or brought within gaffing distance. 

 In throwing the fly, accurate judgment of distance is 

 very necessary, and this again is largely a question of 

 practice. In bank-fishing the angler, holding the rod in 

 both hands, the left some little distance above the winch, 

 the right below it, carries rod and line in an easy, gentle 

 sweep over the left shoulder, till his left arm is raised in 

 a line with his body, and he feels that the line is stretch- 

 ing behind him in the air ; then, as though he were going 

 to hit something with his rod, he brings it smartly for- 

 ward, and this, neatly and properly done, the forward 

 progress of the rod being checked at the right moment, 

 has the effect of dropping the gut-line lightly on the 

 water with the fly as near as may be to the desired 

 position. If he happens to be fishing from the left bank, 

 the positions of the hand and body as just given will be 

 reversed. 



For many reasons the salmon-angler will fish against 

 the current; chief among these being, first, that, as already 

 stated, the fish can only lie with their heads pointing up 

 the stream, and therefore cannot see the angler when he 



76 



