SECRETS OF THE SALMON 



wake them up. Toward evening they again be- 

 come restless, especially if they are going to travel 

 that night. Sometimes when they are bent on 

 going up the river when night approaches they 

 will not pay any attention to the fly, no matter 

 how it is placed. 



As the season advances and the water warms 

 and becomes lower, they seem to adopt particular 

 pools as homes, and I have often noticed the same 

 net-marked fish in the same pool for several weeks 

 at a time. He may never go any farther up for 

 all I know. At this stage of the season the regular 

 salmon fishing with a wet fly ceases, and few fish 

 can be taken except in some very favored spot 

 and at certain times of day or when there is a 

 change of weather. 



It was this condition which I fortunately en- 

 countered on my first three salmon trips, and 

 which obliged me to find some way to catch salmon 

 when they were hard to take. On the first trip 

 I caught one, on the second trip six, and on the 

 third, several hundred — I should hate to tell how 

 many. Fifty-two was the largest day's catch. 

 The Bay men who had failed to get any fish in 

 their nets, due to freshets, called me "the human 

 net," as I gave them the fish. I was getting more 



[ 18 ] 



