216 With Rod and Gun in New England 



CHAPTER IX. 



Salmon a^d Salmon pisHiNc 



By ARCHIBALD MITCHELL. 



ROM an angler's standpoint salmon fishing is a royal 

 sport. When engaged in merely as a recreation, it 

 is entitled to be put in the first rank as an out-of- 

 door diversion. Salmon fishing does not require as 

 delicate or accurate casting as fishing for trout (in 

 some localities and under certain conditions), but 

 the greater size, weight, strength, and fighting- 

 qualities of the salmon, the lightness of the tackle 

 used in proportion to the great weight of the fish, 

 and the judgment, tact, and skill required to bring 

 him on shore, makes salmon fishing a stimulative and fascinating sport 

 for devotees of the rod and reel. 



Anglers who tie their own Hies derive additional satisfaction in killing 

 salmon on creations of their own fancy. Any one who ties flies success- 

 fully can make a new one, although it would seem that every conceivable 

 combination of feathers, silk and tinsel has already been thought out and 

 tried, and the result is a large variety of standard patterns. 



The most popular and leading fly of all is undoubtedly the " Jock 

 Scott," which when correctly tied is a beautiful specimen of artificial 

 entomology. This fly was invented fifty-two years ago, by John Scott, 

 while crossing the North Sea, to fish in Norway. He was at that time 

 water-bailiff for (strange to relate) one of the same name, Lord John 

 Scott. 



A salmon-fly when neatly, firmly and artistically tied, is a beautiful 

 object to look at. It takes the eye of the fisherman as well as the eye of 

 the fish; but it imitates no insect, it resembles nothing that lives in air or 

 water, and what salmon take it for is a question which, although nearly 

 every salmon fisherman has a theory of his own concerning it, has not yet 

 been satisfactorily answered. 



Many fishermen of large experience maintain that salmon never take 

 food in fresh water, which if true, makes the query still more difficult to 

 answer as to the reason why salmon take a fly at all. Some say they take 

 it out of mere playfulness, others say they are teased into taking it, and 

 take it because they are annoyed and wish to get rid of it. It may be true 



