248 SALMON AND TROUT. 
infallible test should it be doubtful if the fish caught isa salmon 
or a sea trout. 
Salmon fishing out of a boat in a Jake should be carried on 
on the same principle as when fishing on the river bank, with 
the exception that a drop fly may be used in addition to the tail 
fly. A drop fly is often used on a river, but I think it is objec- 
tionable in consequence of the risk of its getting foul at the 
bottom, 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
There is no accounting for the humour of a salmon. You 
do not know the minute he will take it into his head to rise; he 
will rise freely sometimes on the worst possible looking day for 
fishing, when no sport is expected. The appearance of a day 
is most deceptive. You may go out full of hope and certain in 
your own mind you are going to have great sport, and you will 
often go home blank without a rise ; but although asa rule it is 
impossible to foretell in the morning what sort of fishing day it 
will turn out, there is an exception. If the wind is in the east 
with a blue hazy atmosphere it seems to affect the fish in some 
unaccountable way, and while it lasts a rise can rarely be got 
out of them. I have noticed this hundreds of times, often when 
the water was in splendid fishing order, and the river full of 
new run fish, but whatever quarter the wind blows from there 
is always a chance while the fly is in the water, and to insure 
success the angler must make up his mind to have many blank 
days. He must never tire of throwing his fly, and never be put 
out by failure. 
The time of day when I have found salmon take best is 
between the hours of nine o’clock a.m. and one o’clock P.M., and 
from four to dusk in the evening. In early spring if there is no 
frost it will make little difference what hour one fishes, but in a 
hard frost it is not often a salmon will rise until the afternoon, 
and then only for a short time. In the latter part of the spring 
months, when the weather, gets bright and hot, the earlier the 
