SALMON FISHING WITH THE FLY. 249 



angler is out the better, but if the sky is overcast I should pre- 

 fer the hours I before mentioned for choice. I have frequently 

 known early risers to have flogged all the pools over all the 

 morning blank, and the man who appeared on the scene at nine 

 or ten o'clock to get sport in those same pools. Salmon will 

 often only rise at certain times of the day, and it is luck to come 

 across them when in the humour. There is one time of the 

 evening, however, when I should never despair of catching a fish 

 if I had been blank all day. The time is about a quarter of an 

 hour after sunset, after a hot bright day in the spring months, 

 when the glare is off the water. There was a pool on the Kil- 

 murry water, on the Blackwater, county Cork, that hardly ever 

 failed me under such circumstances ; it was a sharp running 

 water, as smooth as glass, and a very good rising pool at any 

 hour of the day. When there was no wind, I used to commence 

 fishing at sunset, but although I had fished the pool once, twice, 

 or three times, I never could rise a fish until about a quarter of 

 an hour afterwards. It was then a certainty, but the fish were 

 only on the rise for about twenty minutes, and there was seldom 

 time to catch more than one fish. This was the only pool they 

 seemed to care about rising in at this hour, and the less wind 

 there was the more certain I was to get a fish. 



When fishing private water the angler can choose his own 

 time for beginning operations, and will have the satisfaction 

 of knowing that his fly will be the first one seen by the fish in 

 the morning, but when fishing in club or open water those that 

 go out late will be considerably handicapped, and will very 

 often have to travel a long way to secure a pool. 



A club or open water is a very good school for a beginner 

 to commence his salmon-fishing education. Here he will find 

 plenty of competitors, and he will have a far better chance of 

 acquiring knowledge than if he were fishing in private water, 

 with no one but perhaps an inexperienced prejudiced person as 

 an attendant to advise him. In an open water he will come 

 across old and experienced anglers who, although they cannot 

 be expected to give him information that would mar their own 



