74 The American Salmon-fisherman. 



just about right for the purpose, and if carefully bent 

 and carefully tempered to a spring-temper afterward, it 

 will quite " fill the bill." They may be had from almost 

 any manufacturer of agricultural implements. 



Perhaps the aspiring trout-fisherman for whose bene- 

 fit, and not for that of the experienced salmon-angler, I 

 am writing will better understand the essential features 

 of the gaff, if what has already been said be supplemented 

 with some account of its use. 



The gaff may be used from a canoe or from the bank. 

 After the enterprise of a salmon has become somewhat 

 subdued by the violence and duration of its efforts to 

 escape, if it finds itself in deep quiet water it seems to 

 become somewhat reassured. It may then permit the 

 angler to recover line until the canoe is almost over it, 

 seeming at times almost to regard the shadow of the 

 canoe as a harbor of refuge. The angler of course en- 

 deavors to keep the fish as near the surface as possible. 

 Thus a compromise may result, the salmon being not in- 

 deed on the surface, but yet not so deep but that it may 

 be seen. Should it then afford the opportunity, the gaf- 

 fer may quietly sink his gaff under the fish, and with a 

 quick upward movement impale it and drag it into the 

 canoe. If the operation is so sudden and unexpected that 

 the salmon cannot protest while in the w r ater, it loses no 

 instant of time after it has touched the bottom of the 

 canoe. It is necessarily deposited in the somewhat re- 

 stricted interval across which the gaffer and angler face 

 orie another. The salmon, apparently galvanized into 

 preternatural activity, performs like a cat on a stove. 

 The gaffer hangs to his gaff, still imbedded in the salmon, 

 with one hand, while with the other he endeavors to 



