206 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



never contain any fish ; so that inquiries should be made in the 

 locality before the angler fishes a river unknown to him. 



The salmon is usually fished for with a fly. The rod may be 

 from 17 to 20 feet in length, but 18 feet is an average length. 

 Greenheart is perhaps the best wood. A large check-reel holding 

 i oo yards of dressed silk line is required. The casting-line should 

 be about 4 yards long, of treble gut for the upper part, double gut 

 for the middle, and stout single gut for the lower part. One fly is 

 generally sufficient. Salmon-flies are legion, and every river has its 

 favourites, resembling nothing living on the earth or in the water. 



The accompanying figures, i to 6, will give an idea of the form 

 and size of some salmon-flies, though not of the colour. Mr. Pennell 

 says that three flies of which he gives illustrations are sufficient 

 for any stream and all weathers. He calls them the " silver," the 

 (t gold. 3 '' and the " rainbow." They cannot be described without 

 the aid of a coloured plate. 



The rod must of course be worked with both hands, and beyond 

 saying this, 1 do not propose to give any lengthy instruction how to 

 cast and work the fly, because any salmon fisher will have been, or 

 should have been, a trout fisher first ; and I maintain that if a man 

 who knows how to throw a trout-fly gets hold of a salmon rod, he 

 only needs practice, and if he has any nous at all, will soon find 

 out the proper way. He is already beyond the reach of written 

 instructions, which, in the best of cases, are only vanity and vexa- 

 tion of spirit. 



Salmon fishing is trout fishing on a magnified scale, and those 

 who can afford to indulge in it will endeavour to learn its minutiui 

 from some more pretentious and expensive handbook of the gentle 

 art. 



While trout will rarely rise a second time at the fly, a salmon will 

 rise again and again at intervals. Salmon may also be caught with 

 the worm and by spinning. 



There are two other species of the salmon family which are 

 migratory, and similar to the salmon in their habits, and these are 

 the Bull Trout and the Sea Trent or Salmon Trout. The former 





