32 Salmon Fishing. 



which he sees playing before his eyes in a most 

 tantalising manner, a vicious propensity to stop 

 the bold intruder, and thus cut short his im- 

 pudent antics, is not unfrequently the real 

 cause. 



That salmon do prefer some flies to others 

 is obvious, seeing how frequently we "rise" them 

 with one, and fail to hook them, without 

 changing, and putting on another. Indeed, 

 this is so often the case, that one of our 

 celebrated fishermen, I believe, now deceased, 

 went so far as to declare that, " if you rise a 

 fish with the Lady of Mertoun, and he does 

 not touch her, give him a rest, and come over 

 him with the Toppy, and you have him to a 

 certainty, and vice versa!' If I find a fish 

 refuse two or three times the fly I have risen 

 him with, I almost invariably put on a smaller 

 and less showy one. My reason for doing so 

 is, that the disappointment at finding the fly 

 at close quarters somewhat different from what 

 his sanguine expectations led him to imagine, 



