SECRETS OF THE SALMON 



insects, with the manipulation of the fly which I 

 still regard as very important. As my fishing 

 experiences multiplied and the years rolled on, I 

 came more and more to see that neither of these 

 ideas proved a complete explanation of the action 

 of the fish toward the fly, and I was slowly brought 

 to the point of view that the brain impression 

 formed on the fish by the fly was the important 

 thing. This impression may be made by the light 

 effects of the fly in the water, or by the vision of 

 the fly itself, or its motions. It may be caused by 

 a fly which is an exact imitation of some insect, or 

 it may be caused by something which has no re- 

 semblance to anything living so far as I know, 

 yet such flies not only catch fish, but often take 

 more than flies looking more like nature. It is 

 evidently because these queer flies either corres- 

 pond in their visual action in the water to some 

 natural food, or they awake some instinct for 

 food by the brain impression they form. I am 

 satisfied by my experience to date that we are no 

 more likely to take either trout or salmon with an 

 exact imitation than with some other kind of fly, 

 if it is manipulated to give the right effects on 

 the water and is of the proper size. The regular 

 salmon flies in use certainly do not look like any- 



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