78 SALMON FISHING 



Many men even use casts of double or treble gut. 

 Apparently they believe that fineness of tackle is 

 necessary only when the river is low. They do not 

 seem to consider that when it is "fishable" at all 

 the water, however high, is comparatively clear. It 

 may be tinted by the essence of the peat ; but it 

 can be seen through. If it could not be seen through, 

 salmon, which habitually lie at the bottom, never, 

 as trout do when feeding, near the surface, would 

 not rise. Salmon are much larger game than trout, 

 and the heavier gear with which they are usually 

 approached, besides being necessary, is proportionate ; 

 but can we be certain that its thickness is of no im- 

 portance? Have we any reason for believing that 

 at short range the eyes of a salmon are much less 

 acute than those of a trout ? 



Is the salmon blind to a warning at sight of 

 which the trout goes down? It is conceivable, of 

 course, that, instead of not noticing thick gut, the 

 salmon may regard it as being a trifling freak of 

 nature, to be treated with contempt ; yet one cannot 

 be sure. The point is not unimportant. Some may 

 think that, as many salmon have taken flies in spite 

 of the thick gut, all salmon are indifferent to it; 

 but such reasoning is not conclusive. Once I saw a 

 small boy catching a large trout on a salmon fly tied 

 to a string and cast by a walking-stick ; yet it is 

 not likely that he has ever had such luck again. 

 The capture of that fish was an exception to a well- 

 ascertained rule founded upon the wariness of trout. 

 Is it possible that every salmon taken on thick gut 



