SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 129 



streams with the water rushing and swirling among the 

 huge boulders of its rock-bound course, with here and there 

 a deep and mysterious pool; perhaps flung into sombre 

 shadow by the dark reflection of some giant mountain. 

 Salmon angling as practised by some of the cleverest adepts 

 in the art, those who know the use and mysteries of the long 

 fly rod, the reel, the line, and the whole of the beautiful flies 

 that excite the admiration of us poor bottom fishermen, is a 

 sport of the very highest order ; and when other sports are 

 given up in favour of this, it is very seldom that the sports- 

 man lays it on one side again, until his tottering feet refuse 

 to carry him in safety over the stony bed of the river, and 

 his enfeebled hands cannot grasp the rod with their past 

 strength and vigour. Even some of us humble bottom 

 fishermen to whom I claim to belong can feel some of this 

 attractive power ; for who can forget it when he has once 

 seen his float shoot under the surface, and felt the first wild, 

 mad rush of a fresh run salmon 1 certainly not I. " Hech 

 mon," said one worthy Scotch parson to another, " when ye 

 get up o' the fine Sabbath morn, and find the river i' splendid 

 ply, don't ye jist feel tempted to tak' a cast o' her ? " " Nay ! 

 nay ! brither," replied the other, " I dinna' feel tempted, but 

 I jist gang." 



Ah ! well I suppose it always will be so, this feeling of 

 sport ever uppermost, and " once an angler, always an 

 angler," will be the motto emblazoned on our escutcheons. 



Volumes have been written about the art and glory of fly 

 fishing for salmon, and some of the writers have utterly 

 condemned any other plan for capturing the " King of 

 Fishes," while to use a vulgar worm is dubbed " unsports- 

 manlike," and even " rank poaching ;" but why the plan 

 should have applied to it these terms I fail to see, because it 

 is a well-known fact that on some salmon rivers the angler 

 may flog the water with his fly till his arms are stiff and 

 then not succeed in rising one single salmon (fish, I was 

 going to say, but a big chub might take the fly) ; where- 

 as if a bunch of worms was tripped along the bottom 

 the chances will be all in the angler's favour ; or, to come 

 a step nearer fly fishing, a good artificial " Devon " or a 



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