SALMON FISHING IN THE SPEY 



his tackle, and one of the most disagreeable moments that I 

 can recall on the river was when, in the middle of playing a 

 fish a screw, which regulated the run of the line, came out 

 of the middle of my reel, and I had practically to handline 

 the salmon to the gaff. This was successfully accomplished, 

 but it was a near thing. 



Those who always have a great deal to say about the cruelty 

 of fishing (chiefly because they have no fancy for the sport 

 themselves) are probably ignorant of the way in which a salmon 

 will come again at a fly within twenty-four hours of being 

 hooked and lost, even with another fly broken in its jaw. A case 

 in point occurred some years ago on the Spey. The present 

 Duchess of Abercorn was fishing in the Green Bank pool and 

 using a Silver Popham. She hooked a fish and played it for 

 some time. Then the casting-line broke, and away went the 

 salmon with her best Silver Popham. Next day my father was 

 fishing, and he killed the very same fish, with the Silver 

 Popham still in its mouth. As a matter of fact, salmon prob- 

 ably suffer a great deal less inconvenience from such an acci- 

 dent than is commonly imagined. I have seen it stated that 

 a fish that gets away with a fly in its mouth never rests until 

 it has rubbed it off against a stone or in some other fashion. 

 This may be the rule, but, like other rules, it has its excep- 

 tions, for I recollect that my father, with one of my sisters 

 and myself, went down one day just after the end of the season, 

 a few years ago, to look at the pool immediately below the iron 

 railway bridge that spans the river between Fochabers-on- 

 Spey and Garmouth. I have thought since that we may have 



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