88 SALMON FISHING 



Within half an hour the salmon also reposed on the 

 pebbly beach. He weighed slightly over 20 Ibs. 



Fishing of that kind is much disliked by sports- 

 men whose experience entitles their judgment to high 

 respect. It was a fly that caught the salmon in the 

 harling just described ; but the other lure, it is held, 

 was not innocently occupied. Routing about near 

 the bottom of the water, it may have scared, or 

 pricked, or annoyed many a salmon. If fish are 

 harried by the gear of the troller, how can they be 

 expected to be in blithe mood when the fly fisher 

 approaches ? Even a Tsar or a Sultan cannot rise 

 at a constitutional fly when his hover has been 

 searched by the tackle of the anarch. How is a 

 salmon, timid creature, to be bolder ? As a matter 

 of fact, he is not. He lies low. In Norway and in 

 Scotland the symptoms are well known. Whereso- 

 ever, on a river, trolling is practised, fly-fishing is of 

 little avail. Unquestionable proof of this is afforded 

 by the Tay. On certain stretches of that great river 

 only the fly is allowed ; on others, minnows and 

 prawns and sand-eels are not banned. Taymount, 

 Stobhall, and the Islam outh water are in one class ; 

 Kinnaird, Dalguise, and Dunkeld are in the other. 

 None of these stretches has any natural advantage 

 over any neighbouring stretch; yet it is only on 

 those of the first class that a fly can be thrown with 

 a prospect of reasonable success. In relation to 

 running waters, then, the argument for fly-fishing 

 and nothing else seems indisputable. 



The civilised world will be astounded to learn 



