182 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



[PAKT I. 



rule without an exception, so there are some few rivers in 

 this nation, that have trouts and salmons in season in winter, 

 as it is certain there be in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, 

 where they be in season, as Camden observes, from September 

 till April. 1 But, my scholar ! the observation of this and many 

 other things, I must in manners omit; because they will prove 

 too large for our narrow compass of time ; and, therefore, I 

 shall next fall upon my directions, how to fish for this 



Salmon. 



And, for that : first, you shall observe, that usually he 

 stays not long in a place, as Trouts will ; but, as I said, 

 covets still to go nearer the spring-head ; 2 and that he does 

 not, as the trout and many other fish, lie near the water-side 

 or bank, or roots of trees, but swims in the deep and broad 

 parts of the water, and usually in the middle, and near the 

 ground ; 3 and that, there, you are to fish for him; and that 



1 In the River Lea, which runs into the sea at the Cove of Cork, salmon 

 are in season the whole year round, as I can myself testify, having resided 

 at Cork the greater part of the year. RENNIE. 



2 The salmon delights in large, rapid rivers ; especially such as have 

 pebbly, gravelly, and sometimes weedy bottoms. H. 



3 A caddis or gentle, put on the tip of a hook baited with a dub-fly, 

 takes salmon smelts beyond expectation. BROWNE. The sand-eel is a 

 favourite food of the Salmon, although it seldom happens that any food 

 is discovered in the stomach of the fish. The reason is, that when a 

 salmon is hooked, or struggling in a net, the contents of the stomach are 

 immediately disgorged. A friend of mine in Scotland having, in an estuary 

 of the sea, enclosed a great number of salmon, distinctly saw them, as the net 

 was being hauled to the shore, throw up quantities of sand-eels. ED. 



