A SPRING SALMON 143 



Now in holding your fly on a rough stream you 

 must advance your arms, and bring your rod 

 straight across the river, consequently your line 

 hanging straight down the stream may form a right 

 angle at the point of your rod, and so you should 

 work it in this instance ; but in most other cases I 

 prefer the obtuse angle. As to the argument, " Us 

 avoient raison tous deux/' 



In hooking a rising fish, it is best to strike a little 

 sideways, that the hook may fasten in the fleshy part 

 of the mouth ; whereas, if you pull straight up, you 

 are apt to encounter the upper or bony part ; or if 

 the fish has not closed his jaws, and fairly turned 

 off, you may pull the fly away from him too soon, 

 to the disappointment of both parties. As a proof 

 of this, if it does not appear sufficiently obvious, I 

 appeal to any one, who has tried it, to say whether 

 or not it is an easy matter to hook a rising fish, the 

 experimentalist being stationed on a high bridge. 



Sometimes, however, when a salmon is clean run, 

 and in high glee, you can scarcely miss him, strike 

 which way you will. 



I remember fishing at the Troughs, under the 

 auspices of Rob Kerse, early in the spring, before a 

 clean fish had been caught there that season. I 

 stood over one of those gorges where an immense 

 volume of water, pent up in a narrow passage, rolls 

 furiously between its rocky barriers. Here I fixed 

 myself for a few casts the rocks being of such a 

 nature that I could not go lower down the river 

 either in a boat or by wading. This cast is called 

 the Clippers, and is in Mackerston-water. 



