FLY CASTING FOR SALMON. 13 



you fall in with a pool as you sometimes will where 

 the current is so sluggish as to be almost imperceptible, 

 frequent casts are unavoidable. Without them, not only 

 will your fly sink, but your line will soon acquire a slack 

 which not only gives one an uncomfortable feeling but 

 is unsafe in case of a rise. The very first requisite in 

 salmon fishing is a taut line. It is not only requisite 

 for safety, but without it it is impossible to promptly 

 and properly recover your line for a new cast. 



But there is nothing so tests a salmon angler's skill 

 and patience as to cast in an eddy or whirl. No matter 

 how carefully or at what distance one casts, the moment 

 the fly touches the water it begins to come back upon 

 you, compelling constant casting if you cast at all. 

 The result is a great deal of hard work with very little 

 effect, because to keep a straight line your fly must be 

 lifted almost the very moment it finds a lodgment on 

 the surface. In such a pool one soon becomes weary 

 with his efforts to place and hold his fly in the desired 

 position, for it is not often that he is rewarded by a 

 rise. Since my first experience in such a pool I have 

 never hankered after its counterpart. And yet it was a 

 sort of success in this way : Having become tired cast- 

 ing I allowed my fly to go as it pleased. It was soon 

 out of sight, having been drawn down by one of the 

 whirls, and in reeling up to prevent its being twisted 

 around the rock I presumed to be the primary cause of 

 the whirl, I found myself hooked to a fish which had 

 taken my fly at least ten or twelve feet below the sur- 



