Salmon-fishing — Catching the Fish. 143 



consider the period before the fly has been grasped, and 

 say " To strike is ruin." But if pressed, both will proba- 

 bly agree — the one that they by no means wish to be 

 understood to counsel the strike before the fish has taken 

 the fly, and the others that a moderate demonstration, if 

 postponed till then, can do no harm. 



After collating and comparing what I have read, what 

 I have heard, and what I have done, it seems to me that 

 the beginner who is guided by the following precepts 

 cannot go far wrong. 



That a salmon-rod is moved in fishing very much less 

 than a trout-rod, which is in almost constant motion, that 

 the casts are much less frequent, and that it is held in a 

 much more horizontal position v/hen the fly is working, 

 have probably been already remarked. Now if it be re- 

 solved that no matter what a salmon may do, even though 

 he stand on his nose and direct his tail to every point of 

 the compass in succession — that under no circumstances 

 will the angler respond in any way until the tip of the 

 rod is pulled down or line is drawn from the reel; and 

 that then he will limit himself merely to raising the rod — 

 or rather act as though that was the intention, when the 

 result will be that the rod will bend and double up — he 

 will not only have done all in the way of striking which 

 is either necessary or advisable, but he will have followed 

 the actual practice of the majority of those who advocate 

 as well as of those who deprecate the strike. 



When the tip of the rod is pulled downward, or when 

 line is drawn from the reel, since both are inanimate, 

 some extrinsic force must be the cause. That cause must 

 be the salmon; and since it has no other prehensile organ, 

 the fly must then be in its mouth. If we then bend the 



