SALMON FISHING 



four good new run fish, viz., one of 12 lbs., one 10 lbs., and two 

 of 9 lbs. At eight the water beginning to " grow," I reeled up 

 and rushed down to Rannoch to show my early friend another 

 fly : but the water having fairly commenced to grow, I put on 

 a fly above two inches long, and the tippet being triple gut, I, 

 by an interposition of Providence, put on a triple casting line. 

 Having cautiously descended to my stand I showed it to him 

 at once ; he made small bones of it this time, and rushing up 

 like a bull-dog, or like one of your lovely Peregrines, took the 

 fly greedily. I just let him feel I was at the other end of the 

 gear, and knew instinctively that the good steel was well into 

 something firm. At first he seemed not quite to realise the 

 situation, and after a few sulky and dangerous shakes of the 

 head took to sailing steadily up and down the pool, once or 

 twice approaching the rapids below, but turning again by gentle 

 persuasion. These tactics he continued for nearly an hour, my 

 man waiting for him on the gravel below, and out of my sight. 

 By this time the effect of the last night's rain had become fully 

 apparent, the still dark pool below my feet had turned into a 

 seething pot, without a quiet corner for the fish to rest in, and 

 the water had risen nearly twenty-four inches above its size 

 when I hooked him. The upshot was, he shot down the 

 narrows, and went rolling heels over head down the foaming 

 " Meux & Co.'s Entire " (this being the usual colour of our 

 summer floods). To stop him was impossible ; I held on above 

 the rapid till I thought my good Forrest rod would have gone 

 at the hand, and certainly the fine single gut I had on earlier 

 would have parted with half the strain. 



' All I could do was to give him what line he required until 

 he found a resting-place behind some rock ; this he did after 

 rattling off fifty yards of line. Waiting some minutes till he 

 seemed quiet, I threw off some ten yards more line, and turning 

 the top of the rod up stream, I darted it down to my man on 

 the gravel below, having cautioned him not to alarm the fish 

 by letting the line get taut. To scramble up the rocks and 

 down again to the gravel bed, to resume possession of my rod, 

 Y 169 



