146 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



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 singular 

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

 torrent so impetuous that nice tackle was by no 

 means requisite. 



In a low clear water you must be somewhat 

 dilatory in striking : you often see the heave of 

 the water and a break before the fish has actually 

 seized your fly. Give him time to turn his head in 

 his way back to his seat, to which a salmon always 

 returns after rising at the fly. Tom Purdie gave 

 me an account of a fish that had perplexed him 

 greatly by his non-observance of this rule, as nearly 

 as possible in the following words. He might have 

 used fewer certainly, but Tom was not laconic. 



" I had," said he, " risen a sawmon three suc- 

 cessive days at the throat of Caddon-water fut, and 

 on the fourth day I was determined to bring him 

 to book ; and when he rose as usual, I went up to 

 Caddon Wa's, namely, the pool opposite the ruins 

 of Caddon Lee, where there had been a terrace 

 garden facing the south ; and on returning I tried my 

 old friend, when he rose again without touching the 

 heuck : but I got a glimpse o' him, and saw he was 

 a sawmon o' the biggest sort. I then went down 

 the river to a lower pool, and in half an hour came 

 up again and changed my heuck. I began to 

 suspect that having raised the fish so often, I had 

 become too anxious, and given him too little law, 

 or jerked the heuck away before he had closed his 

 mouth upon it. And as I had a heavy rod and 

 good line, and the castin' line, which I had gotten 



