WITH THE PARR-TAIL, MINNOW, AND WORM. 287 



If allowed to drop to the bottom, the salmon will no 

 longer assail them. Accordingly, recover line with the 

 hand, and be a little more chary than at first of yielding 

 it when the fish renews the attack. At this point it is, 

 that a slight measure of resistance will act as a pro- 

 vocative ; previously its effect was to alarm and beget 

 suspicion. 



The salmon will now, after two or three successive 

 assaults, bolt the bait; and his doing so may be in- 

 ferred from a peculiar strain upon the line, more fixed 

 and continued in character than any it had yet been 

 subject to, during the attack. The resolute and quick 

 elevation of the rod will suffice to fix the hook deep 

 among the entrails of the fish, and nothing further is 

 left to be done but to fatigue and land him. 



Such is the method of capturing salmon with the 

 worm pursued in the neighbourhood of Kelso. It can 

 be practised with success, only when the river is clear 

 and small. A slight degree of frost is also favourable, 

 sharpening wonderfully the appetite of the fish. The 

 greatest feat I happen to have witnessed, in the way of 

 killing salmon with the worm, was accomplished six or 

 seven years ago, on the Hemp-side Ford stream, close 

 to Kelso, by a friend of the late Sir Francis Chantrey, 

 who himself, on the occasion I allude to, was also 

 engaged angling on the pool immediately above. Sir 

 F. I understand to have been held in repute as a 

 Thames fisher, and from the specimen I then witnessed 

 of his skill in heaving the line, the perfect control 

 he exhibited over his rod and tackle, I could at once 

 perceive that he was no raw or undisciplined angler. 

 Quite otherwise it was with his friend, who, although I 

 make no question but that he had frequently, before 

 then, disturbed the finny tribe, was evidently a very 



