ROD fi- CREEL 



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with the disheartening news that the river had dropped over 

 a foot and was as clear as crystal. Upon reaching the river it 

 looked hopeless, so instead of fishing right off we decided to go 

 to his house, nearly half a mile's walk up a steep hill, have 

 lunch and begin to fish about 3 o'clock. To make matters 

 worse, the sun came out about 12 o'clock and by the time we 

 got back to the river a little after 3 o'clock, there was not a 

 cloud in the sky. 



"We went to the Rock Reach first but it was so low you 

 could see the bottom and I passed it up. However, a little 

 higher there was a good looking piece of water with forty or 

 fifty yards of it quite deep enough to hold fish, so I put my 

 rod together. The bait I selected was a two-inch slotless brass 

 Devon that had not been polished for some time and was quite 

 dull. I must here remark that I was trying out a very fine plain 

 silk line that had been specially recommended for its strength 

 and smooth running, and it was really more with a view to test- 

 ing this line that I started to fish. Well, that little minnow 

 had not travelled six feet of the very first cast when I hooked 

 a fish. As a fighter it was about the poorest steelhead I ever 

 played ; just one splash, not even a proper jump, a short run or 

 two and then he sulked most of the time. I was afraid of the 

 line, and it must have been half an hour before he was landed. 

 It was a very broad fish, almost like a spring salmon, in good 

 condition, of twelve and a half pounds. Of course, I never 

 expected any more neither did my friend, who even then did 

 not bother to put his rod together. After I had smoked a pipe, 

 I started again a bit lower down and about the fourth cast I 

 was into another one. This fish was the very reverse of the 

 first one and made a succession of jumps and rushes so that he 

 soon gave in and was gaffed inside of five minutes. Weight a 

 trifle over nine pounds. After this I fished on until I was 

 getting into pretty shallow water near the tail of the reach and 

 was about to give it up when I hooked what, for a second, I 

 thought was the bottom, but turned out to be a third fish. This 

 one put up a hard fight, but was eventually landed. Weight, 

 nine and a half pounds. 



Up to this time I had not fished the head of the reach, as I 

 seldom do when fishing for steelheads, but I had noticed a 

 huge boulder close to the other side and thought I would try 

 it, as it was a fine looking place for a fish to lie, especially a 

 salmon. My first cast was short, but the next went right over 

 the spot and I had barely got control of the minnow before a 

 fish struck like a "ton of bricks." There was a flash of silver 

 as he just broke the surface and then the reel was fairly scream- 

 ing as the fish tore down stream. How I wished I had my 

 usual heavy line ! I never thought that little silk thread would 

 ever hold out. Luckily I had over a hundred yards of line, or 



