414 THE SALMON FLY. 



in the argument of the utmost importance. " By attending to Mr. Kelson's 

 instructions," says one who knows the advantage of the method, by 

 long practice, " I find it absolutely impossible to break the gut or line, or 

 strike too hard. The strike should be a long, firm, steady pull, but not a 

 jerk. Trout, grilse, sewin, and other species of the salmonidoe, will in- 

 stantly reject an artificial fly unless struck, and my impression is, Salmon 

 will do the same." 



Then the Editor, himself an enthusiastic Fisherman, takes up the 

 cudgels, and amongst other matters of my method gratuitously re- 

 marked : " It is an infinitely better plan than striking with the line 

 held fast a number of Anglers have thanked us for suggesting the 

 system." 



Now, in this contradictory business there must be a right and a wrong. 

 In the opinion of a few, the practice of striking is a mistake altogether. 

 Others insist they lose more fish when the practice is ignored, and are 

 satisfied that it is an imperative necessity. And, whilst many complain 

 bitterly of the losses sustained by the old methods of holding the line, they 

 yet sing praises in favour of the new, by which they meet with neither 

 failure nor loss of tackle. 



In the light of these facts, it would appear there are two sets of 

 Anglers, whose opinions upon this vital question are widely divergent ; and 

 although I have in the past pages frankly expressed my own views, it is well, 

 in such a volume as this, to ventilate the views of opponents. It is evident 

 that one side wishes you to believe that it is unnecessary to strike at all, 

 and that if you do, you will lose tackle ; but it does not say how many fish 

 get away by leaving them to hook themselves. The other side tell you the 

 fish must be struck, that if not, many will drop the fly after taking it, and 

 that if you adopt the new method you never break the tackle or tear the 

 flesh of the fish, and so get many more to the gaff. 



The former school I know get some fish ; the latter, three times as 

 many. But in the very constitutions of these two sides there is an infinite 

 variety. What is wholesome in fishing and what is the reverse, are two 

 different things, and must be estimated accordingly. The " pull," for 

 instance, and the subject of presentation, which, as foreign ingredients 

 were poison to one side, is food to the other. Not a tittle of evidence 



