THE SALMOX. 303 



CHAPTER IX. 

 THE SALMONS. 



THK BOD THE REEL AND LINE HOW TO USB THEM CASTING STRIKING 



PLATING A SALMON SEA TROUT FISHING. 



I HAVE now brought the student on through all the various 

 grades of angling, from the first and earliest efforts of the 

 tyro amongst the smallest and most insignificant quarries 

 of the angler's art, up to what is usually considered the 

 last and highest walk of his skill the capture of the 

 lordly salmon. If I have been somewhat lengthy, the 

 angler must remember that he has reached, in the short 

 space of 302 pages, the point which it took me as it does 

 many others nearly twenty years to reach. 



It has been well said that salmon-fishing is sport for 

 kings. Fox-hunting is a noble pastime, and the first burst 

 from the covert side full of joyous excitement. Drawing 

 a bead on the wild red deer after hours of careful stalking 

 is no doubt an anxious and exciting second. But the bold 

 rise and the first wild rush of a twenty-pound salmon 

 thrill through the frame as nothing else in the nature of 

 sport does ; and I have never known a man who has in 

 him the true essence of a sportsman, and who has for the 

 first time felt and seen the play of a fresh-run salmon in 

 his native river, who has not been a salmon-fisher for ever. 

 I have known and heard of scores of instances where 

 other sports have been given up for salmon^fishing, but 

 never heard I of one (when sport was on) where salmon- 



