FISHING FOR SALMON 295 



If a river is not wadable, and has a broad rapid current 

 in the centre, the fisherman should content himself with 

 fishing the faster water and his side of the stream, casting 

 the fly well over but within the rapid portion of the river, 

 and allowing it to come round into slacker water towards 

 his own bank. 



SINKING A FLY 



Placing a shot on the line near the fly in order to sink it, 

 does not appear to me to be an unfair method of fishing ; 

 the object being, of course, merely to bring the fly to the 

 notice of the fish. If the fish be lying well down to the 

 bottom, and the water be thick, a fly coming down the 

 stream near the surface would easily escape its notice. 

 This practice of leading a fly is frequently condemned as 

 being opposed to legitimate fly fishing ; it suggests a relation- 

 ship to the method of snatching fish. The object, however, 

 of the salmon or trout fisherman is to capture fish by lures 

 which are meant to represent some form of water insect 

 life, and the various flies which are thus used are meant to 

 be presented to the fish. If the fisherman, therefore, 

 chooses the only method of doing this that is of presenting 

 his flies by placing shot on his cast, I sympathize with his 

 effort, and not with these objectors, who are perhaps 

 adopting an attitude having a greater relationship to their 

 own ethics and ideas as to legitimate fishing, than to the 

 absolute merits of the case. Personally, I dislike throwing 

 a line to which shot are attached, but if the fisherman cannot 

 otherwise attract the notice of the fish he is anxious to 

 capture, he has my sympathy if he uses shot. 



HARLING 



This method of presenting the lure to salmon can best 

 be adopted in large and rapid rivers which are otherwise 



