FEBRUARY. 



SPRING SALMON FISHING. 



BY GEORGE LINDESAY. 



THE conditions, surroundings, and influences which cause the 

 migratory salmonida to leave salt water and to ascend during the 

 winter months a particular river, thus constituting what is called a 

 spring river, have always been a fertile subject of discussion and 

 argument among anglers. 



In Norway the rivers which enter the sea on the more southerly 

 portions of the west coast invariably fish first ; those in the central 

 districts somewhat later, and last of all the rivers of Norsk Fin- 

 markin and of the Varanger Fjord; while the further we go to 

 eastward along the coast of the icy sea we find the innumerable 

 streams of Russian Lapland later and later, until we reach those 

 which enter the White Sea, which the salmon do not ascend until 

 the month of August. 



On the other hand, as regards England and Scotland, the 

 earliest rivers are in the extreme north of the latter country, and I 

 take it that most anglers would name the Thurso and the Naver as 

 perhaps the earliest of all, together with those excellent Highland 

 streams, the Helmsdale arid the Brora ; while the heavy fish with 

 which Loch Tay is found stocked at the opening of the rod fishing, 



