DISADVANTAGES OF A LONG LINE. 263 



current in some measure to control them, but do not 

 give it the full sway. Always recover the hook upwards 

 or towards yourself after allowing it to drop, and do this 

 by gentle impulses, not urging it into a gallop or hasty 

 pace, but guiding it at an amble, so as to appear more 

 life-like and natural, whether taken as an insect or as a 

 small fish. 



In salmon-fishing, never allow the hook itself to plough 

 or ruffle the surface of the water. By the trout-fisher, 

 whose lures are in point of size comparatively insignifi- 

 cant, this may be done occasionally without any bad 

 result; but a salmon-fly thus worked will generally 

 occasion distrust or terror, and seldom prove inviting. 

 On the other hand, however expedient it is to keep the 

 fly well-sunk while travelling it, one must avoid falling 

 into the error of allowing it to sink too far. It is into 

 this extreme that many of our best salmon-fishers are 

 apt to run. They employ frequently, when there is no 

 occasion for it, too much throwing line, and at the same 

 time, while working it, lower the point of the rod beyond 

 all due proportion. Consequently, they are often obliged 

 to gallop in order to sustain the fly, and should a fish 

 incline to take it, in two cases out of three they are left 

 without any indication of its attempt ; nay more, in the 

 event even of a marked and well-directed rise, where the 

 presence of the fish could not fail of being detected, a 

 very long line is incapable, from its want of sufficient 

 pressure, to insure the planting or fixing of the barb in 

 the mouth of the salmon. It acts as too distant and 

 too loose a method of communication betwixt the angler 

 and his spoil. It makes it necessary for him to attempt 

 hooking the fish by striking a mode of operation in 

 respect to salmon which is certainly reprehensible. In 

 the case, however, of a strong current, or when the 



