SALMON FISHING. 141 



lutely necessary, or you throw over and beyond your cast, 

 and so lose power, having more or less a bagged line when 

 you come on to it, and if your rod is upright, and your 

 line bagged, and a fish happens to rise, as they will some- 

 times at the last moment, you cannot strike your fish, and 

 the chances are a scratch and a lose. 



Always fish your best, and cast as if you were expecting 

 a fish to rise at every cast. If you get listless and out of 

 heart sit down and smoke till you grow keen again, but 

 don't fish carelessly. It is ten to one that you lose your 

 chance if you do. You have been fishing all day perhaps, 

 and have not touched a fin. You are tired, out of heart, 

 and careless. You've fished the best of the pool. The 

 lower bit is never very good, only giving a fish once in a 

 way. You have pitched your fly out, however, and, your 

 cigar being out, you take the opportunity to strike a fuzee 

 while holding the rod for a moment in your left hand, or 

 you are doing something else equally imprudent, when 

 suddenly you feel a touch at the rod point. You look up 

 from the all-absorbing fuzee. "Ah! confound it, there 



he was just as I was Oh, dem, dem, dem, he's gone ; 



and, having had a good taste of the fly, will not come 

 again for a day or two, and what a thundering big boil he 

 made. I'll lay a sovereign that's the twenty-pounder 

 Jones saw ; and he said it was in this pool, too, but I 

 thought it was further up. Oh, dem, dem, dem ! " Why. 

 will you do two things at once? Isn't salmon fishing 

 enough for anyone ? There is nothing more common than 

 to fish all day and do nothing, and to get your fish, or even 

 two, towards evening. 



Don't wade if you can do without, as, at the best, it^is 

 more or less rheumatic. If you must wade, use water- 

 proofs and worsted under, and always turn them down 



