SALMON-FISHING 



Here fain would I stop, for the rest is but a chapter of temptation and 

 discomfiture. I sent and borrowed some prawns and tackle from a 

 friend; I sullied my fingers by rigging out the unlovely crustacean 

 upon the hooks, and I affronted the lordly salmon by dangling it before 

 him every time he came within reach. He, as well as every other 

 fish in the pool, treated the stinking bait with the contempt that I felt 

 was my own due for using it, and I left him slowly gyrating in the green 

 depths. 



I dare not guess at the weight of this fish. He was a great, square -set 

 male, rather red, with enormous fins, and he made every other fish in 

 his company look like a grilse. That is the first and only attempt I have 

 ever made to fish with prawn, and in all probability it will prove the last. 



Only twice have I taken salmon on any other lure than the artificial 

 fly^^nce, accidentally, when spinning in Loch Arkaig for the big trout 

 fondly termed Salmo ferox, and once, by deliberate intent, spinning a 

 bleak in a huge Norwegian river. Natural and artificial spinning baits, 

 the loathly worm and the odoriferous prawn — all have enthusiastic ad- 

 vocates, and no doubt each calls for skilful manipulation; indeed I have 

 heard it claimed for prawn-fishing that it is a more delicate art than fly- 

 fishing. So it may be for all I know to the contrary, though it certainly 

 does not look like it. Having no inclination to exalt fly-fishing at the 

 expense of other methods of angling for salmon, let me state all that I 

 consider the pros and cons of bait-fishing. 



First as to pro: Undeniably there are certain salmon-haunted waters, 

 such as Loch Tay or Loch Ness, where the fish lie so deep that it is futile 

 to angle for them on the surface, and where they must be attracted by a 

 spinning-bait sunk to within range of their vision. In such places the veriest 

 tyro starts on even terms with the most experienced veteran, each re- 

 lying upon the local knowledge of the boatmen, and enjoying an equal 

 chance of having his bait seized by a forty-pounder. Neither skill nor 

 knowledge bear any part in the performance so far, and this in itself 

 surely tends to lower bait-fishing in the scale of sport. When a salmon 

 is hooked, indeed, the odds turn in favour of the old hand, for lake salmon 

 are often of great size and fight violently, and a novice is apt either to lose 

 control in the first rush, thereby allowing the fish to get out of hand, 

 which is a common preliminary to getting away; or he holds it too hard 

 until the rod is pulled nearly straight with the line and a fatal rupture is 

 the result. 



43 



