14 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



face. When I first felt him he came up as easily as a 

 six-ounce chub, and I supposed I had nothing heavier 

 than a medium sized trout. But as soon as he felt the 

 hook and saw my canoe he showed his mettle, and gave 

 me just such a fight as I might have expected from a 

 twenty-pound salmon, as he proved to be. That was 

 the first and last salmon I ever took with the fly so far 

 under water. The rule with some anglers is " to let 

 the fly sink a little " ; my rule is never to let it sink at 

 all. When a fish strikes I want to see him. There is 

 no movement that so thrills and delights me as the rush 

 of the salmon for the fly. To me, half the pleasure of 

 a rise is lost if I don't see the head and shoulders of 

 the kingly fish when he leaps for the lure. 



The manner of casting is almost as varied as the 

 casters themselves. You will seldom see two salmon 

 anglers cast precisely alike. Some cast with a straight 

 backward and forward movement, without the diver- 

 gence of a hair. Others secure a half sweep to the line 

 by giving the backward movement over the left shoul- 

 der and the return over the right, or vice versa. Still 

 others almost invariably cast sideways, or "under" as 

 it is called, seldom lifting their rod perpendicularly. 

 Some stand as erect and motionless as a statue when 

 they cast. Others sway to and fro as if they made their 

 body rather than their arms do the work ; and others 

 still push themselves forward as they cast, as if they 

 were not sure their fly would reach its destination un- 

 less they followed it. These, however, are simple man- 



