76 RODS CREEL 



cans with six-foot tarpon rods, with wonderful multiplying 

 reels. You would likely see half a dozen boats all playing 

 "tyees" at the same time, some of them in an agony of fear 

 that some other boat would foul them and shrieking wild, and 

 often strong warnings to boats in their vicinity. There would 

 be smashed tackle and broken rods and narrow escapes from 

 falling overboard and occasionally the sight of a novice man- 

 fully playing what he believed to be a record salmon, but in 

 reality the bottom. Then, later in the evening when fishing 

 was over and the inner man refreshed with meat and drink 

 (prohibition was not even thought of in those days) there 

 would be a gathering and events of the day discussed, with the 

 usual vstories of record fish lost, etc. Those were great days: 

 they brought the fisherman much pleasure and the Province 

 much profit.' Alas! the glory of them has departed; commer- 

 cial fishermen with their traps and seines have unwisely been 

 allowed to ruin the most famous salmon water ever known. 



"While full particulars as to rods and tackle are given in 

 separate article under the heading of "Trolling for Salmon," 

 advisability of using plenty of line is again impressed upon 

 those thinking of going there. You might go there with only 

 a hundred yards of line and land every fish you hooked, but 

 the chances are every big fish would break you. "With a hun- 

 dred and fifty yards of line you would be reasonably safe, but 

 once in a while an occasion occurs when fifty yards more is a 

 good thing to have. Even if the fish never takes it out you 

 know you have plenty and it might save you putting on just 

 that little too much pressure which would cause the loss of 

 rod or tackle. 



The first time I ever fished at Campbell River I had an 

 idea that in a boat a hundred yards would be sufficient. I 

 soon found I knew nothing about it. The very first big fish I 

 hooked ran out into a roaring tide while I was in an eddy. It 

 felt something like what I should imagine it would be to hook 

 a train going at sixty or seventy miles an hour. I never 

 stopped that fish. Luckily my trace broke and I did not lose 

 the w r hole of my line too. 



The fish vary a great deal in their ways of fighting. Some- 

 times you can kill a fish of forty or fifty pounds in fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, then again you may be over an hour. The last 

 time I fished at Campbell Eiver, two years ago, I landed two 

 fish on an evening tide, I think they were both very close to 

 forty-five pounds. The first one made some tremendous runs 

 and jumped several times; he played himself out in less than 

 half an hour. The second fish was a perfect demon, his runs 

 were not so long but he never stopped, sometimes coming to 

 the surface and churning the water up like the propeller of a 

 stern wheel steamer. He was the best fighting fish I ever 



