24 THE SALMON FLY. 



At times Salmon will take anything, at times nothing. In a fever of 

 excitement the King of Fish will exercise his royal jaw upon a thing it 

 were an outrage to call a Salmon fly. A one-sided, wobbling, 

 hydrocephalic bunch of incongruous feathers. Nay, this same whimsical 

 despot has been known to bring destruction upon himself and discomfiture 

 on all theory and calculation by fixing his momentary affections upon a 

 single Jay or Jungle feather tied anyhow on a big bare hook ! Only a few 

 years since, I believe in '83, a well-known Fisherman, passing from pool 

 to pool at Eingwood, and dangling his crude fly in the stream as he 

 hurried along, hooked, in eighteen inches of water, and successfully 

 landed, a forty-two pound fresh-run fish. "Hi Regan " tells me of 

 another, caught in the upper Moy with a field daisy, impaled on a small 

 hook. And there are many living witnesses to these crowning instances 

 of a Salmon's fastidiousness. Fishing the Earn one sulky day in '87, I 

 saw within six feet of me a Salmon working up a gravelled shallow. 

 Several flies had previously been tried in vain. The last, made by a 

 novice, having just lost its Mandarin-drake wings, was lying on the 

 bed of the river, for the purpose of keeping the gut in order, whilst I 

 whipped up another like it. On nearing the rude hook it was but little 

 else the Salmon came about a yard out of his way, picked it up and 

 made off down stream at a flying pace. I soon got in command of him, 

 and went home carrying 11 Ibs. more than I started with. 



But fishing is no more the mere " catching " of fish, than is cricket 

 mere smashing down wickets by chance, or billiards mere " knocking 

 three balls about on a table covered with green baize.". 



Strength and symmetry are necessary qualities in every Salmon-fly, 

 especially for waters harbouring shy fish, where bait-fishing* does not 

 defeat the whole thing. As for strength, first, we must obviously be 

 prepared for the worst. The battle may last for hours and its issue must 

 depend in a great measure on the strength of the fly. So then first, let 

 the hook be of the best make and well tested beforehand. There is a 

 vast difference in barbs, which fact anyone may easily study with profit 

 to himself, by submitting to scrutiny, under an ordinary magnifying lens, 



* People exist who fancy that this way of ruining a river for fly-fishing involves a 

 question And yet we are rapidly approaching the end of the nineteenth century ! 



