2i6 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



as if he had caught five, and this takes no account of the 

 benefit he derives from hours of healthy exercise in the 

 open air. 



The literature of salmon-fishing is so profuse, much of it 

 such excellent reading, that it would be futile to attempt more 

 than a recapitulation of the principal methods employed and the 

 requisite conditions of weather and water. 



First, as to the season. Spring is the time when salmon- 

 fishing is at its prime. The fish are then in lustiest condition 

 and most brilliant in appearance. Their ovaries have not begun 

 to drain the fulness of the muscular system ; every ounce of 

 energy can be applied by the salmon to a fight for life and 

 liberty ; and, as a rule, salmon come more readily to the lure 

 in the early months than at any other season of the year. The 

 condition of water which enables the angler to pronounce a 

 river in " good order " is when it is full, but not flooded. 

 The most artistic method of angling for salmon is with the 

 artificial fly ; it is also the favourite with anglers, and reckoned 

 the most sportsmanHke. But it is to be noted that it is only 

 by courtesy that the arrangement of fur, feather, silk, and tinsel 

 presented to the fish can be called a " fly." Salmon do not feed 

 on flies ;* moreover, as has been explained above, they do not 

 feed at all, in the sense of taking nourishment, while in fresh 

 water ; although the predaceous instinct, curiosity, irritation, 

 and perhaps occasional spasms of appetite, prompt them to 

 seize and even to swallow lifelike moving objects. The 

 salmon-fly, indeed, is a purely arbitrary evolution of the 

 fisherman's fancy ; how slender is its resemblance to a 

 natural fly may be realised on examining the trays in any 

 fishing-tackle shop. These baits are classed as flies, and their 

 exhibition is termed fly-fishing, by analogy with trout-flies 

 and fly-fishing, wherein the intention is to simulate natural 

 insects. 



* Nevertheless, when March browns come thickly on the water in 

 spring, salmon may occasionally be seen rising freely at them. 



