238 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



would come up slowly and gently toward the fly. 

 It was certainly enough to try the patience of a 

 double-haloed saint. But luck, whether it be good 

 or bad, always changes if only you wait long 

 enough, and so one fine day the spell broke, for 

 within five minutes after we started fishing, my 

 companion became connected with a fourteen- 

 pounder which put up a good fight and came to 

 the gaff after about fifteen minutes. For an hour or 

 so nothing else happened, so we moved to another 

 pool, and almost immediately I hooked and took a 

 medium-sized fish. For several hours we worked 

 hard trying various flies. Two had at last risen to 

 a small and much-worn "yellow sa,lly." On the 

 second or third cast it was taken by a nineteen- 

 pound fish. It was quite evident that only by using 

 the greatest care could it be landed, for, as I have 

 said, the fly was badly worn and the snell (it was a 

 trout fly), was in no condition to stand much strain. 

 Those were ticklish moments. Each time the fish 

 broke water we expected to see him get off", but 

 good luck was with us this day, and just as the gaff" 

 struck home the snell broke. One more jump and 

 surely we would never have seen that fish at close 

 quarters. Needless to say my friend was in a most 

 cheerful frame of mind, for, up to this, the largest 

 salmon he had taken was thirteen pounds, so here 

 he had broken his record twice within a few hours. 

 The rest of the day we devoted to the pool in 

 which the first fish had been taken. It was a very 

 large one and contained plenty of good fish. There 

 was here one in particular that I had set my heart 

 on catching. He was a large fish, and though he had 



