MANAGEMENT OF THE FISH. 269 

 HOW TO MANAGE A SALMON WHEN HOOKED. On 



hooking a fish there remains often much to be done 

 before he is secured. About one-third of hooked 

 salmon escape; some through sheer carelessness or 

 want of experience on the part of the angler, others 

 by reason of the fish being slightly or insufficiently 

 fastened, and a few owing to uncontrollable circum- 

 stances which occasion, without choice or remedy, the 

 snapping or wearing through of the line. Thus, for 

 instance, a strong fish, on being hooked, may betake 

 itself in a direction down or across the river, while 

 the angler, his stock of line being run out, is, from 

 the nature of the banks or the breadth of the pool, 

 unable to pursue ; or it may, having its lair among 

 sharp-edged rocks, exert itself with success to wear 

 through the gut which holds it a manifestation of 

 cunning, on the part of an old fish, by no means un- 

 common, although it is seldom met with, when the 

 salmon is fresh-run and relies for escape upon the 

 exertion of its strength and fleetness. 



On hooking a fish, the first thing to be done by the 

 angler is to raise his rod to a proper height to throw 

 the point of it well back over his shoulder, or, in 

 technical language, show the butt to his prisoner. To 

 do this properly, one does not require to use force, or, 

 in the smallest degree, strain his rod; nor should he, 

 in all cases, act with extreme gentleness, but accommo- 

 date his firmness of hold to the strength of his tackle 

 and size of hook employed. At the same time, he 

 should be prepared to allow line, and that freely, in 

 case the fish choose to exert its speed. 



It is not always, on hooking a salmon, that the 

 angler can immediately form a just opinion as to its 

 size. Fish, under the control of the rod, often acquire 



