STRIKING. 413 



value of the method which I adopt myself ; and I think the explanations 

 given of these cases, emanating from men of whom one or two have fished 

 almost as long as I have, will tend to further that end. One gentleman 

 considers it to be "a very bad habit " to strike a Salmon at any time. It 

 is a curious fact, but his is not the only individual case in which I have 

 had the opportunity of directly judging for myself. "Halloa! " I once said 

 to my friend whom I had been closely watching unperceived. " You hit 

 him pretty hard that time ; whatever you think you do, if you do not strike 

 I never yet saw the man who does." " Bless me," said he, " who thought 

 of seeing you ! Ah, ah ! come down here and I'll show you something as 

 soon as I have this fellow on shore." I went, to see my greatest opponent 

 fishing with my winch and a double hooked fly. How mellow that whisky 

 of his tasted ! 



Let us pass to the next opinion which runs : " When striking from 

 the winch especially when fishing with large flies, if the winch is not a 

 very stiff one (which to me is an abomination) a sufficient strain on the 

 line cannot, in my opinion, be available to fix the point of the hook over 

 the barb ; and when striking with the line tightly grasped between the 

 hand and the reel, the sudden jerk and strain on the line is apt 

 to leave the fly in the fish's mouth, or smash the top of the rod ; also 

 the fly will be often snatched away before the fish has had time to 

 take hold of it, which may scare him to such a degree that he will not 

 rise again." 



I can scarcely keep from my mind the idea that the writer, in this 

 instance, was joking. Still, here is the judgment of a successful Angler, 

 and I shall say no more than sufficient to place my experience of these 

 matters along with his and others for the reader's consideration. I need 

 not institute a comparison between a stiff and a free running winch just 

 now, for this, together with the crucial and exhaustive test of the 

 particular strain " available to fix the point of the hook over the barb," 

 must obviously form part of the material to work upon, in presently ex- 

 plaining my own ideas of the best methods of striking. But with regard 

 to the fly being left in the fish's mouth well, this is just one reason that 

 induced me to work out that method. Of a different order is the following 

 address, which strikes the key note of the new method and raises a point 



