62 ANGLING FOE OUANANICHE 



of 1894, that the waters of the lake, which vary in 

 height some twenty to thirty feet during the season, 

 are nearly as high in the fall as they were in the spring 

 of the year. In August, 1894, there were abundant 

 catches of ouananiche with rod and line in Roberval 

 Bay. No better directions can be given for angling 

 for the fish in the lake itself than some of those con- 

 tained in the quaint instructions for catching salmon, 

 of Thomas Barker, to whom good old Father Walton 

 was indebted for much of what he knew of fly-fishing 

 and artificial flies. Much more accurate, in fact, as a 

 description of ouananiche fishing than as a guide to 

 the taking of the Salmo solar, in North American 

 rivers, is the following passage from " An Ancient 

 Practitioner in the Art," as he calls himself, to be 

 found in Barker's Delight, or the Art of Angling : 



" The angler that goeth to catch him with a line and hook must 

 angle for him as nigh the middle of the water as he can with one 

 of these baits : He must take two lob- worms, baited as handsomely 

 as he can, that the four ends may hang meet of a length, and so 

 angle as nigh the bottom as he can, feeling your plummet run on 

 the ground some twelve inches from the hook : if you angle for 

 him with a flie (which he will rise at like a trout) the flie must be 

 made of a large hook, which hook must carry six wings, or four at 

 least ; there is judgement in making those fiyes. The salmon will 

 come at a gudgeon in the manner of a trouling, and cometh at it 

 bravely, which is fine angling for him and good. You must be 

 sure that you have your line of twenty-six yards of length, that 

 you may have your convenient time to turne him, or else you are 

 in danger to lose him : but if you turne him you are very like to 

 have the fish with small tackles : the danger is all in the running 

 out both of Salmon and Trout, you must forecast to turn the fish 

 as you do a wild horse, either upon the right or the left hand, and 

 wind up your Hue as you finde occasion in the guiding the fish to 

 the shore." 



