SALMON FISHING WITH THE FLY. 243 



the same pool— a deep hole above a fall, with a sunken rock in 

 mid-stream. He got fast in this rock twice during the day, and 

 I had the good fortune (being able to see what I was about) to 

 free the line ; but when it got dark and I could not see, I sent 

 for a lantern ; meanwhile, my fish got fast again in the rock, 

 and broke me ; he gave my attendant one chance of gaffing 

 him, but he missed it, and he never gave another. The fish 

 was plainly seen by the spectators, and he was judged to be a 

 red male fish of about forty pounds. He w^as hooked under 

 the chin. I put the utmost strain on the line my rod was 

 capable of during the whole day, but he did not show any 

 signs of giving in, and might have kept me all the night. I 

 could not pull him down stream owing to the fall, or it was 

 possible I might have killed him in ten minutes ; he sulked the 

 whole day, and never ran out a yard of line. I should like to 

 have had him on the bank, but, to tell the truth, I was not 

 sorry to part company with him, as I should have felt in honour 

 bound to hold on as long as I was able, which would not have 

 been very pleasant, as it was a cold night in the month of 

 October, and he was hardly worth the trouble. But to return 

 to my subject. If there is plenty of room, and no danger of 

 being broken owing to sunken rocks, roots of trees, snags, &c. 

 &c., it will be as well to put only a moderate strain on the line, 

 and to let the fish run out as he feels inclined ; but there are 

 occasions when it is necessary to hold on at any cost, and not ■ 

 to give an inch of line if it can be avoided. It is astonishing 

 how easily a fish can be cowed in this manner. On a river in 

 the south of Norway that I was fishing with a friend there was 

 a narrow rapid stream, in which salmon congregated in large 

 numbers, waiting to take the falls just above, where it was 

 a certainty to rise or hook a fish. We fished from a high rock 

 overhanging the stream, and there was only one place where a 

 fish could be landed, which was a backwater, about the size 

 of a large dinner table, on the side we fished fiom. Directly a 

 fish was hooked, it was a case of pull baker, pull devil, and we 

 tried to haul him into this bit of slack w^ater ; and, if we once 



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