140 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



your elbow in advance, and doing something with 

 your wrist, which, as Mr. Penn says, is not very easy 

 to explain. Thus the exertion should be chiefly 

 from the elbow and wrist, and not from the shoulders. 

 You should throw clear beyond the spot where the 

 salmon lie, so that they may not see the fly light 

 upon the water ; then you should bring the said fly 

 round the stream, describing the segment of a circle 

 taking one step in advance at every throw. In this 

 manner the fish see your fly only, and not the line. 

 It is customary to give short jerks with the fly as 

 you bring it round, something in the manner of 

 minnow fishing, but in a more gentle and easy way ; 

 and I think this manner is the most seducing you 

 can adopt : it sets the wings in a state of alternate 

 expansion and contraction that is extremely capti- 

 vating. 



Salmon will often take your fly on one side of the 

 river when they will not touch it on the other.* In 

 high water, the channel side, as a general rule, is the 

 best, and at the cheek of the current ; and you 

 should not be in a hurry to pull your fly into the more 

 bare and still parts of the channel, where the fish 

 will come more cautiously and lazily. In low water 

 it is best to throw over the channel from the rocky 

 side, drawing at first rather quickly, that your fish 

 may take your fly in the current, which is material. 

 In very low water, indeed, when the fish may be 

 said to give over rising, you may try your luck in 



* I think Dr. Francis Ward's experiments have helped to explain 

 this. It is in many cases evidently a question of the angle of light. 

 Cf. Appendix. (ED.) 



