392 Big Game Fishes 



swivels, which loops up four or five inches of the 

 regular linen line. The salmon, striking and 

 holding the baited hook and giving the conse- 

 quent strong pull, breaks the cotton line, and the 

 sinker, liberated and of light value, drops away 

 in the sea, leaving the salmon free and unimpeded 

 for his vigorous and gallant fight, except for the 

 fine line and rod strain." 



As in white sea-bass fishing, the game is often 

 discovered by the birds, shags and others, which 

 are plunging down and swimming through schools 

 of anchovies, playing havoc with the small fry, be- 

 neath which the hungry salmon often lie like these 

 bass, picking off the stragglers, or at times chasing 

 and driving them in upon the rocks or into the 

 surf. On this day the fish bite well, and the 

 angler's patience is not exhausted. The strike 

 comes, and if you are an old salmon fisherman 

 from the Restigouche country or elsewhere, this 

 doughty chinook will treat you to some remark- 

 able surprises and possibly to a new sensation. 

 What is the splendid creature that seizes the bait 

 and shakes and worries the line like a bull ter- 

 rier, giving blow for blow; this tremendous surge 

 down, down, deep into the heart of the bay, with 

 irresistible force ? Surely this is not the fish, or 



