Salmon-fishing — Catching the Fish. 151 



in mid-air can he part the rope ? To break a rope, or a 

 leader, action and reaction — a pull and a rigid resistance 

 to pull against — are equally necessary. 



Again, the voice of authority is almost a unit in assert- 

 ing, if not that the leap of the salmon is an eifort to strike 

 the leader with its tail, at all events that if it does suc- 

 ceed in so striking the leader it will surely be broken. 

 Though this is not absurd upon its face like the other, 

 still I am by no means convinced that it is much more 

 likely to happen. By no preliminary remarks does the 

 salmon advise the angler that it is about to spring into 

 the air. The whole performance is begun and ended so 

 quickly that it is diiEcult to say just what does take place. 

 But I have never been able to see a salmon slash its tail 

 about when in the air, in a manner which would imperil 

 a leader in the slightest degree. The supreme effort is 

 that which impels it into the air. After that the motion 

 of its tail is within very narrow limits when measured 

 from side to side. Certainly a line more or less sub- 

 merged in water, with a curve already in it from the 

 motion of the fish or the current, and backed by a flexi- 

 ble rod, can stand being pushed aside a few inches with- 

 out any great danger to its integrity. 



As far as I know, the authorities all advise — nay insist 

 — that when a salmon jumps the tip of the rod should be 

 lowered or the leader will be broken. That the line is 

 thus slackened near the fish so that it must attack a loose 

 rather than a tight line, is the theory as I understand it. 



I disagree with this, not only for the reasons already 

 given, but for others as well. Between the angler and the 

 fish intervenes the current, always greedy for slack line. 

 The leap of a salmon is begun and ended in less than two 



