THE SALMON. 181 



more grave colored should be the fly, as a general rule. 

 Where the river is foul, or the current much broken, 

 foamy and rapid, the fly can hardly be too large, or too 

 gaily colored. 



For the rest, no writing can teach a man how to throw 

 a fly, how to strike a fish when he has risen, or how to 

 kill when he has struck him ; practice, patience, perse- 

 verance, and coolness are the great requisites, and the 

 best way of learning is to acco'mpany a good fly-fisher 

 to the brook-side, to observe and study his motions, and 

 by example more than by oral instruction to acquire his 

 method, and by degrees approach his skill. 



I suppose hardly any one would attempt to use the 

 double-handed rod, or attempt salmon, who had not first 

 learned to throw a cast of flies from the light rod, and 

 succeeded in hooking a trout. I will therefore merely 

 observe, for the benefit of the trout fisher who makes 

 his first essay on salmon, that it is not advisable, as in 

 trout fishing, to keep the fly dancing as it were and hov- 

 ering on the surface, but to let it sink a little way, pull 

 it back with a slight jerk not quite out of water, and 

 then let it sink again, and so on until your cast is finish- 

 ed, and you lift your fly for another. Again, when a 

 salmon has risen at your fly, you need not strike near so 

 quickly, and you must strike much more strongly and 

 sharply than at a trout. Colquhoun, in his capital book, 

 " The Moor and the Loch," recommends that the sal- 

 mon be allowed to turn before striking him, and I 



