238 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



movements of tail and fins, sweep the sand and fine gravel 

 away from her body, and thus form a hollow trough, into 

 which she proceeds to deposit a portion of her ova, 

 the male fish meanwhile acting as guard, keeping off other 

 male fish, and also the predatory attacks of troutlets, 

 parr, etc. Directly the female has finished each batch of 

 ova, the male darts over and fertilizes them with his milt, 

 and the gravel is then swept over them. 



Both male and female salmon decrease in weight after 

 spawning, and are then in the kelt or unclean stage. The 

 greater the time spent by the fish in fresh water prior to 

 spawning, the more discoloured does it become and as a kelt 

 it will exhibit a disgusting comparison to its condition 

 as a fresh run salmon. It is not impossible that a so- 

 called " well-mended kelt " may owe its comparatively 

 clean condition to the fact that it has been but a short 

 time in fresh water, or that it is a late run salmon which 

 has not spawned in a natural manner, but which has spent 

 or otherwise discharged its ova, and has not yet fallen back 

 to the salt water.* 



Those fish which have been for several months in the 

 river, will be of a dun, or dirty looking red colour, or even of 

 a black appearance, and under whatever circumstances 

 they have discharged their ova they will be exhausted and 

 spent, and exhibit on their scales the so-called spawning 

 marks, which are in reality the decrepitation of portions of 

 the scale owing to the genital changes and poor condition 

 to which they have arrived. 



It must also be remembered that in rivers which offer 

 no great difficulty to ascending salmon, such as the Wye, 

 fish running clean and bright from the sea, very late in the 

 season, and spawning in December or January, might not, 



* For a full discussion on this point see the chapter on the Scale Markings 

 of Salmon, p. 249. 



