SALMON FISHING 183 



There is exhilaration and excitement and 

 mystery about it, the thought of which hurries 

 us towards any opportunity of angling on a 

 river which is known to hold salmon in any 

 quantity. But we come to be fastidious as we 

 grow older, and though the season of fly fishing 

 for salmon lasts from about the middle of 

 January on some rivers in Scotland to the end 

 of November on the Tweed, we do not look 

 forward to all parts of it with the same eager- 

 ness. It is on fresh run spring salmon, that 

 the angler of experience comes to set his heart, 

 and for these, on the rivers of Great Britain 

 generally, the months of March and April are 

 the best season. If I had to choose four weeks 

 in the year for salmon fishing, I should take 

 them from the middle of March till the middle 

 of April. It was once my great good fortune 

 to spend a little time in these months for several 

 successive seasons on one of the best spring rivers 

 in Scotland, and since those days I have made 

 comparatively little account of autumn fishing. 

 The glory of salmon fishing is in the spring. In 

 March the supplies of water are still high, from 

 the rain of the autumn or from lately melted 



