144 The Atlantic Salmon 



The best stages of water for fishing are just 

 after a rise begins and after a rise, when the 

 water is at the turn and commences falling. 

 When a river is growing in flood or when it 

 is low and falling, salmon are generally, though 

 not always, indisposed to rise. It has been 

 said that there is one hour or more out of every 

 twenty-four when any salmon in any pool will 

 take a fly, which at the least it would be hard to 

 disprove. When salmon have been for some 

 time settled in a pool, often fished over and per- 

 haps pricked, they learn to associate the sight of 

 a man, a canoe, or even a rod and fly, with 

 danger. I have seen three or four salmon, in low, 

 clear water, drop down-stream and out of sight 

 when a fly floated over them, and in the same 

 spot presumably the same fish would take a fly 

 at dusk when the line was not so clearly visi- 

 ble. A rise of water will send many of these 

 fish up-stream to new scenes, where they are 

 much less shy and have to learn anew the lesson 

 of caution, as do their relatives from below who 

 come up to take their places. It is certain that fish 

 are much more likely to rise for a short time after 

 they reach a pool than when they have been 

 there for several days. On their arrival from the 



