Salmon -Fishing. 



425 



MISFORTUNE. 



them, thus keep- 

 ing out the early 

 morning light and 

 securing a long 

 night's sleep. Our 

 first day opened 

 with a drizzling 

 rain which forbade 

 fishing. After 



coming a thou- 

 sand miles, and 

 with but six days' 

 " permit " upon 

 our stream, a 

 rainy day seemed 

 like a misfortune. 

 About ten 

 o'clock, the sun 

 came out, and I 

 went to the pool directly in front of the house, to practice casting 

 with both hands as well as get used to standing in a cranky 

 canoe. Soon a fish rose and hooked himself, only making it known 

 by spinning off a few feet of line as he dropped back to position 

 at bottom of pool. A fish will thus hook himself nine times in 

 ten if the fly comes slowly over him with a taut or at least 

 straight line behind it. More fish are lost by too quick striking 

 them than by other bad management. The steel-like tip of the rod 

 upon the slighest pull at the fly springs forcibly back and fixes the 

 hook at once. I had resolutely determined never to strike, and 

 have never done so. I may have lost a fish by it, but am sure 

 more would have been lost by striking. Of course, a strong, quick 

 pull is given after the fish is hooked and has started the reel, 

 in order to imbed the hook more firmly. Soon my reel was furi 

 ously whirling. I had read about the "music of the reel" and 

 all that sort of thing ad nauseam, as I had often expressed it ; 

 but somehow, after hearing a salmon in his first fierce run upon a 

 reel with a stiff click, the wonder was that people had not written 

 more about it. 



