SALMON FISHING 193 



which are the good streams or pools, and to fish 

 them all with evenly distributed care. The 

 angler should fish all that he is told is good 

 water, but he should concentrate his care and 

 skill and perseverance on the best spots of the 

 good streams and pools. The most successful 

 salmon angler is one who feels expectation it 

 is more than expectation, it is almost faith, 

 founded on previous experience stir within him 

 as he approaches certain well-known places. It 

 is as if there was some magnetic influence in the 

 angler's confidence, which predisposed the salmon 

 to take his fly, and an angler who knows that he 

 is fishing a good pool, but does not know exactly 

 where to expect a rise in it, has not so good a 

 chance of rising a fish as the man who has 

 hooked salmon in that pool before, and knows 

 not only that it is a good pool, but what is the 

 best spot in it. 



And yet salmon fishing is more lucky than 

 any of the other sorts of angling discussed in 

 this book. Luck does perform the most extra- 

 ordinary feats on salmon rivers,' and plays all 

 sorts of tricks sometimes, but none the less is 

 it true, that the angler who throws the longest 



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