144 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



Here, with a line not given out above my rod's 

 length, I hooked a clean salmon that rose close 

 under me. I struck him as he was at the surface of 

 the water : as soon as he felt the hook, he en- 

 deavoured to dig downwards. I gave him the butt 

 of my rod, and he bent the whole of it in a way that 

 I never saw before, making it in shape, with a slight 

 exaggeration, nearly two-thirds of a circle. " Gie 

 him line, gie him line," roared out Kerse and Charlie 

 Purdie " od but he'll break ye, mon." Now I 

 knew that if he went down the Clippers amongst the 

 rocks, I should be cut in a moment to a dead cer- 

 tainty ; for, as I noted before, I could not follow. 

 So I was determined not to yield at all events, and 

 I held him firm at the surface of the water. In this 

 position he had not half his natural power, and in 

 less than a minute Charlie cleiked him, and brought 

 him out before he could dig down. Thus he was 

 taken by surprise. He proved to be a clean salmon 

 of ten pounds, and the first that had been caught 

 that season. Now this could not have been done, had 

 not the line been short and the fish almost immedi- 

 ately under me. I remember Kerse (who had before 

 been pressing the necessity of using double or triple 

 gut in such dangerous water) saying, " Ay, that was 

 canny enough ; but if you had not been advised by 

 me, it could not have been done at ony gait." I 

 showed him my casting line, however, which, except- 

 ing the first length next the line, was of strong single 

 gut. But he was certainly right in his assertion as 

 to the necessity of very strong tackle in such a sin- 

 gular cast, especially as the river was very full, and 



