426 



Salmon -Fishing. 



One cannot afford entirely to 

 ignore book teaching. Having 

 read and re-read every standard 

 author on salmon-angling, my 

 rod-tip was at once, and without 

 thought, lowered when this lively 

 little fellow made his first leap in 

 the air, and showed the beautiful 

 silver of his sides. It was done 



just as the fingers strike the proper key upon a musical instrument, 

 when the player's mind is too far away perhaps to name the tune 

 he has unconsciously run into. Of course, if you do not lower 

 your rod-tip, the fish, falling upon a taut line, will break himself 

 loose. This fish showed no disposition to leave the pool for the 

 rapids below, but went first to one side, and then to the other, 

 sweeping around by the farther shore, and jumping clean from 

 the water each time he turned. It was impossible to keep below 

 him, so rapidly did he change place. In spite of all the strain 

 which could be safely put upon him, he would now and then get a 

 hundred feet below the rod and rest there in comparative ease, with 

 the force of the current balancing my strain upon him in an opposite 

 direction. When you can keep abreast of your fish, or a little below 

 him, the current, weight of line, and your strain of two or three 

 pounds all in the same direction will soon tire him out. 



Most anglers greatly miscalculate the force exerted by the rod, 

 and will speak of using many pounds' strain. An actual test with a 



