114 SALMON ANGLING. 



leave him quietly alone for the present, and return 

 to try him some time afterwards. On taking the 

 fly, the fish means to return with it to his precise 

 select spot of lair, on rock, stone, or gravel, at the 

 bottom ; and the fine angler, holding him gently, 

 often in the first instance allows him to do so ; but 

 soon the fish, too surely feeling his awkward predica- 

 ment, bolts off, " indignant of the guile." Then is 

 the time when the fisher is attentive. With the 

 butt end of his rod resting on his thigh or groin, he 

 keeps the top nearly erect, never allowing it to fall 

 below the proper angle of forty-five degrees, as rela- 

 tive to the situation of the fish ; and in this position 

 the elasticity of the rod never allows the line to 

 slacken in the least degree for a single instant, how- 

 ever the fish may shake, flounce, jerk, or plunge. 

 With two or three fingers and the thumb of his left 

 hand the angler holds his rod, while the wheel-line 

 runs out, regulated by the first, or first and second 

 fingers, relieved or assisted, as occasion may suggest, 

 by the right hand, when it can be spared from its 

 necessary occupation of rolling up the wheel-line, as 

 the fish settles a little or returns inwards. In this 

 manner the fish is allowed to run up, down, or across, 

 as he may choose. But if, when the fish makes an 

 outright dash of thirty or fifty yards aslant, ending 



