How to Fish for Salmon. 25 



again down as far as the Twa Stanes, when he 

 suddenly turned up again, but then I put the strain 

 on him, and turned him ; down he came again, 

 passed the Twa Stanes, into the pool below and 

 right across it. " He must not go there, we can't 

 follow him if he does," said Mackenzie; so then 

 the butt was given with a vengeance, and what a 

 pleasant feeling came over me when I found he 

 yielded, and we soon brought him to bank, a fine 

 fresh-run fish of 21^ Ibs., and the sea-louse upon 

 him. 



A fish hooked foul is often an ugly customer, 

 particularly if he is a " big un." In 1880 a fish was 

 hooked in the upper part of the Spean, of No. 2 

 beat, at five p.m., and landed at the lower part of the 

 same beat at eleven p.m. He never showed himself, 

 and although he was supposed by Aitken to be 

 hooked foul, his rushes and tricks made him doubt. 

 However, when landed they found he was hooked 

 by the dorsal fin, and weighed 20 Ibs. only. But 

 sometimes, from circumstances, a foul-hooked fish 

 will give in very soon. A fine fish of 18 Ibs. was 

 hooked in the Spean, and at the same time I 

 heard an ominous crack of the top joint of the 

 rod (the only place where I ever strike a salmon 

 is in Tumbledown Pool on the Spean, a deep, 

 silent pool, where you see the great fish come 

 after your fly and just seize it like a trout, 



