A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



appearances, though, for the matter of that, I doubt whether 

 we who don the workmanUke kit nowadays considered essential 

 for fishing are any better anglers than my aunt, Lady Caroline 

 Gordon-Lennox, and the late Lady Sandwich, who, in their 

 flowing skirts and ** pork-pie " hats, killed fish with the best, 

 and were, I believe, the first ladies to fish for salmon in this 

 part of the Spey. Back in the early seventies very few ladies 

 had ever thrown a line. Such robust sport was probably 

 regarded as fit only for the men ; but these pioneers, after one 

 of whom is named that very killing fly, the " Lady Caroline," 

 have had a host of followers, so that salmon-fishing is nowa- 

 days considered the fashionable sport for my sex, and even 

 among the greater tarpon of Florida and tuna of California 

 women have carried off some of the prizes. Indeed, there 

 are women to-day who even excel as hunters of big game ; 

 but, without having acquired a taste for quite so dangerous 

 and arduous a pastime, I do think that there is no sport like 

 salmon-fishing, providing, as it does, healthy outdoor amuse- 

 ment, and calling for patience and perseverance as the con- 

 ditions of success. Luck, of course, counts for much, as in 

 all fishing, but in the long run the salmon will try the pro- 

 verbial angler's patience more than most fish. 



Most of us with any love of the sport at all can probably 

 remember our first salmon. Mine was a twenty-pounder, 

 and it kept me for a good twenty minutes struggling for all I 

 was worth. I shall never forget how Geordie Shanks, 

 the gillie whose name has long been famous on Speyside, 

 shouted at me : 



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