38f) THE SALMON FLY. 



and rarely if ever witnessed on other than Association waters, whose list 

 of members, forsooth, sometimes includes the names of persons ever more 

 on the alert for jealous competition than for the enjoyment of true sport. 



At all events, before closely examining stream fishing, it must be said 

 that some of these " rippling runs " abound with " tub " catches and may 

 be bordered with one or two eddies. This chiefly determines the choice 

 of flies, their size, and the characteristics of their dressing. The essential 

 difference between a " tub " and an ordinary clip in the bed of a river is 

 this : A tub catch is always protected at the head by a boulder, 

 immediately behind which, yet in the hollow itself, a fish will lie ; whereas 

 in the ordinary dip, arising from some peculiarity in the flow of the water, 

 the unprotected fish will take up its quarters at the tail of the dip rather 

 than on the rising ground. (Salmon will lie on the rising ground when 

 the so-called " dips " are out of all proportion larger than the places which 

 I am alluding to, and lead into very deep channels.) It is an invariable 

 rule with me in fishing " tubs " to mount a small fly, dressed with over- 

 sized Jungle "sides," or well-marked Summer Duck serving the same 

 purpose, and fish foot by foot rather than yard by yard. In the case of 

 fish coming up from deep water, and lying at the very head of a long dip, 

 the size of the fly is not so important as the way it is presented, 

 whilst the question relating to Jungle and Summer Duck does not 

 enter. One wants to fish close, in other words, to take short steps, with 

 a view to getting the fish to come sharp at the fly when he sees it at a 

 distance. 



I have always noticed in stream fishing, when the bed is formed of 

 gravel, that the more the district is overstocked with Eods, the more 

 readily well matured fish fight shy of gaudiness, and exhibit a special 

 preference for common looking, plainly dressed flies ; and this is, in my 

 opinion, the very reason for so many of our Standards being blessed with 

 so many variations here, there, and everywhere. In unfrequented 

 districts, the very opposite ruling applies to streams of this sort ; and, if 

 I mistake not, it was for one of them that " Jock Scott " was first dressed 

 with a blue silk section, and its reputation made at once. 



There are circumstances connected with the temperature of the 

 water, its height and colour, atmospherical changes, and the influence 



