206 FLY FISHING 



need not grudge any amount of success either 

 to himself or his friends, if they fish with a fly. 

 In any fair-sized river, the number of salmon 

 which can be caught with the fly even by fishing 

 all day and every day up to the end of October, 

 is so small in proportion to the whole of the 

 fish, that the stock of salmon belonging to the 

 river will never be impaired or unduly reduced 

 in this way. The salmon which are in one pro- 

 prietor's stretch of the river one day may not 

 be there the next. He need no more think of 

 sparing them, when they are inclined to take, than 

 he need of sparing woodcocks, when shooting his 

 covers, in order to reserve them for another day's 

 sport. In this respect salmon fishing has an 

 advantage over trout fishing. The migratory 

 habit of salmon gives a feeling of freedom to do 

 one's utmost, as well as a feeling of uncertainty 

 whether the fish are in the water or not. 



But migration leads to great difficulties and 

 drawbacks. If it is true that it is not in the 

 power of any one owner to spoil his own and 

 other people's sport by fair fly fishing, it is 

 also true that it may be in the power of one 

 owner by netting, to spoil the sport of the 



