FISHING THE SALMON FLY 77 



the sun being directly in the eyes of the fish, it 

 is impossible for them to see anything in front. 

 If the sun is facing as you cast across the pool, 

 the fish can only see the fly as they look 

 towards you, and therefore it is unnecessary to 

 cast beyond them. If the position of the sun 

 is at your back, the fish will only be able to 

 see the fly as against the far bank, therefore 

 you must cast beyond them, and so on. Have 

 you ever noticed in shade fishing for trout, that 

 if a bait be dropped in front he will rarely 

 take it, whereas if dropped with a little plop 

 behind, he generally turns to see what it is, 

 and taken off his guard as it were, often takes 

 the bait ? Well, so it seems to be with the 

 salmon in fine water. In trout fishing, particu- 

 larly with dry fly, one can generally see the 

 fish, note his movements, select a fly, place it 

 over him, and if defeated, try him again with 

 another pattern and so on. In fishing salmon we 

 do not often see the fish. We speculate that 

 they are there, and try for them with the fly 

 we think most suitable. We may have moved 

 several fish, but we do not know, as we have 

 seen no break in the water, nor felt any 

 pull. The dry fly man says, "Any fool can 

 catch a salmon." Can he ? This class of person 

 does occasionally, but the really expert salmon 

 fisher will kill twelve fish to the other gentle- 



