226 With Rod and Gun in New England 



broken leader and a lost fish. This experience taught me that the 

 strongest salmon gut that can be found will not possess any more strength 

 than is necessary to cope successfully with exigencies which are likely to 

 arise on any salmon river where the fish average a large size. 



Although the actions of salmon after being hooked are similar, still 

 no two ever act exactly alike, and no one can tell just what a salmon may 

 do after he becomes thoroughly frightened. What is there in the way of 

 sport that will give one a thrill equal to the first rushes of a fresh-run sal- 

 mon after he has become fast to the hook and realized the necessity of 

 making a desperate fight for liberty ? 



But it should not be inferred from this that the writer advocates 

 the use of heavy rods and heavy lines in fishing for salmon, for the lightest 

 tackle that will hold, play and land the fish angled for, will always afford 

 the greatest amount of pleasure and excitement, because of the tact and 

 skill required in the sport. 



Salmon can be killed, and killed quickly, on light rods, although heavy 

 two-handed rods are used. During the past season a salmon was killed on 

 a Canadian river with a split-bamboo rod nine feet long and weighing only 

 four and one-eighth ounces. The reel used was a plain rubber click reel 

 with eighty yards of fine trout-line. The fish weighed twenty-three and 

 one-half pounds, which is a trifle over ninety times the weight of the rod, 

 and it was gaffed in exactly twenty-seven and one-half minutes from the 

 time it took the fly. This was accomplished on a part of the river where 

 there is a strong current and at the same place where half an hour has fre- 

 quently been spent in killing a fish on a regular salmon-rod weighing twenty- 

 seven ounces, no heavier and no gamier than the one killed on the feather- 

 weight trout-rod. 



The question naturally arises, why was the fish not killed quicker on 

 the salmon-rod than on the little trout-rod? Simply because the small rod 

 was capable of putting a strain of three pounds on the fish by keeping the 

 tip low and letting the strain fall on the lower part of the rod. The strain 

 was kept more steadily on the fish than it would have been with a salmon- 

 rod, and the average strain from the latter rod would not be any greater 

 than from the former. The steady, never-let-up strain that clings is the 

 one that soonest discourages and tires out the fish, and it was surprising 

 how soon the big salmon began to weaken under the steady strain of 

 the little rod. 



But whether a light or a heavy rod is used there is health-promoting 

 exercise and exhilaration in the sport. Angling for salmon calls out the 

 sterling qualities of a man, and no other use of the rod and reel so tests 

 his mettle or taxes his judgment ; but commensurate with the tact and 

 skill required to kill a salmon, is the satisfaction felt when the fight is o'er 

 and the fish is landed. 



