186 FLY FISHING 



bination, and when at last success came, I was 

 struck with what seemed to me a want of quick- 

 ness in the movements and turns of the salmon. 

 I still feel that want of violent rapidity, and 

 though the play of a fresh run salmon is often 

 very fine, I wish that it was a little less stately. 

 In some of the more rapid rivers of Norway the 

 speed and violence of the salmon seem to be 

 much greater than they can be in the quieter 

 rivers at home, and some day perhaps I may 

 meet with one of those fish, to land which one 

 has to spend hours and travel miles in the 

 struggle after it is hooked. I have never yet 

 had a fish in play on a salmon rod for more than 

 half-an-hour, or landed one more than 200 yards 

 from the place where it was hooked. 



The art of fly fishing for salmon bears no 

 relation to any other form of angling with a fly. 

 If it is akin to anything, it is to working a 

 minnow rather than a fly, and the salmon angler 

 must get all analogy with trout fishing out of 

 his head. The most essential points are skill in 

 casting and knowledge of the river. In casting 

 the object of the angler is to throw the fly above 

 and beyond where he hopes the fish are lying, in 



