33^ Reminiscences of 



But its energies are not entirely gone, as shown at the 

 stroke of the gaff, when it exerts new Ufe, and well held 

 must be the gaff, with strap over wrist, or away may 

 the fish go, if not quickly swung into the boat by the 

 gaff, and will often flop out of the boat if the head blow 

 is not speedily given. No sight can more gladden the 

 heart of a fisherman than that of a dozen salmon in 

 his boat as he returns from a morning's troll. 



I shotold say that the market fishermen lose pretty 

 nearly half the salmon they hook — at least when they 

 strike a good school — for they act quickly to reap the 

 harvest, and pull in with all their strength the hooked 

 salmon on their stout cotton hand lines with large hook 

 and sinker. They row and sometimes sail more rapidly 

 than one would with a light trolling rod, and in their 

 eagerness often attempt with the hook alone to lift their 

 fish into their boats, often losing in this manner. They 

 tear out the hook often in their rough haxoling in. They 

 sometimes fish with two hooks, having quite a stiff steel 

 wire fastened to the end of their lines, with a spread of 

 three feet, and on each end a baited hook on a foot line, 

 and often succeed in hauling in doubles of salmon as 

 well as of other fish. 



But in trolling with a light steel rod, with the salmon 

 freed from the sinker, it is almost invariably brought to 

 gaff, and not one in a dozen of those hooked is lost, 

 even those by a skin hold. I have repeatedly taken 

 them in hooked in this way, and it is not difficult to 

 know very quickly how the fish is hooked, and in the 

 latter case handle more carefully, as trout fishermen 

 do, when they have hooked a trout in the same way 

 But to hook a salmon foul, say on the back, entails a long 

 winded fight, as has occurred in one or two of my catches. 



