236 With Rod and Gun in New England 



CHAPTER XI. 



Salmon pisHi^G IN Salst Wate^. 



By S. PARKER WHITNEY. 



Singular as it may appear, although salmon in countless numbers 

 have undoubtedly for centuries made annual visitations along the strip of 

 Pacific coast, a hundred miles south of San Francisco, extending from 

 Santa Cruz and Monterey to Carmelo bay, no advantage had been taken 

 of it in a sporting sense by resident or other sportsmen, until the writer in 

 the summer of 1893, attracted by the quantity of salmon brought to 

 market by the Italian and Portuguese fishermen, was led to investigate the 

 source of supply. This led, after experimental efforts, to the adoption of 

 a light and efficient tackle, from which was derived a sport of the most 

 exciting character and of extraordinary success. 



Little is known of the salmon after its exodus from fresh water. We 

 all know the habits of the salmon after it returns to the stream where it 

 was hatched, and where it playfully disports itself in the pools and running 

 waters. It returns in its prime, fresh from the invigorating briny depths, 

 and from the time it reaches the fresh water it goes without food, even for 

 months, until it again returns to the sea, when lean and lank from its long 

 fasting, it soon recuperates and adds fresh weight. 



Of the spawning habits of the female we are familiar, also of the 

 young life of the smolt or parr, which, remaining in the stream of incuba- 

 tion for from one to two years, takes to the sea, where it rapidly gains in 

 weight, and returns the following year to the fresh water as the grilse, 

 weighing from three to nine pounds. 



But it has been a sealed book as to the life of the salmon in the sea, 

 its wanderings, its habitat, its methods of feeding and varieties of food. 

 How far it wanders away from its native stream, and its sea life we know 

 little of. 



We know the unerring instinct, so-called, which guides the salmon 

 from his sea wanderings back through the pathless ocean to the pleasant 

 pools of its infancy. But it may well be doubted if it is instinct which 

 guides the salmon on his return, or if the sea is pathless. The scent of 



