32 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



did not run a boat. So at first we had to sell our fish to the neighbor- 

 ing cannery. 



About noon of the first day we began fishing in earnest. We 

 caught a fish every few minutes. I soon hooked one that I thought 

 must be a whale. He was very game and stayed deep in the water. It 

 was almost half an hour before I got him to the surface, and when he 

 did come up I was sure surprised, for instead of being a silver salmon 

 he was a 30-pound chinook. I finally shot him in the head with my .22 

 rifle. By night we had 11 silversides and 4 chinooks, making 15 for the 

 first day. 



A man in a motorboat trolling near us offered to buy our fish, 

 paying 25 cents apiece for silversides and 3 cents a pound for chinook, 

 so we sold to him for several days. The next day, October 10, we caught 

 21 silversides and 8 chinook. On October 11 I went to Scottsburg to 

 mail some letters and killed a buck on the way, besides catching seven 

 salmon. October 12 we caught 56 salmon; the next day 40; the next 

 day 50. Then they began to drop off, but we still caught from 15 to 

 41 a day. A number of people were trolling in this part of the river. 

 They were mostly campers who had come in from different parts of the 

 country to catch a few salmon to smoke or salt for their winter use. 



After the first of November the salmon bit better. During the 

 first week we caught from 20 to 40 per day. Then we had some rain, 

 the river began to rise. During the first two days of the rise we 

 caught 42 and 44 respectively. The third day the river was too high 

 for good fishing and we caught only 25. The next day the river had 

 fallen and we made our biggest catch — 79 salmon. For the next ten 

 days we caught from 44 to 75 a day. The price had raised and we 

 were now getting four cents a pound for all our salmon. 



The weather got cold and everything would be white with frost of 

 a morning. It was pretty hard on the fishermen. The fish bit fine, 

 but we could only catch two or three before our hands would get so 

 cold that we would have to go ashore and run around awhile to get 

 warm. Some fishermen made stoves out of 5-gallon oil cans, which 

 they carried along to warm their hands by. 



It was so cold that we would have to keep moving our lines through 

 the guides on the rods or they would freeze fast. We would have to 

 take a nail and punch the ice out of the line guides every few minutes 

 or they would freeze fast and there was danger of the line breaking. 

 We would have made some large catches during this cold weather if it 

 hadn't been so uncomfortable fishing. 



In this particular the other fishermen had the advantage of us. 

 They used large hand lines to troll with instead of rods and reels. 

 Ordinarily, however, I do not think much of the tackle they used. 

 Their lines were almost as big as a rope and they tied on their spoons 

 without a leader. It's a wonder they ever catch anything. As a matter 

 of fact, they do not catch nearly as many as they would if they used 

 light tackle. They seldom caught over 8 or 10 a day. Their hooks as 

 well as their lines were too large. The striking salmon often failed to 

 swallow them, but when they did it was all off with the salmon, which 

 was brought in hand over hand and into the boat almost before he 

 knew what had happened. Some of the fishermen made fun of our 

 tackle at first, but they soon changed their minds. I think most of 

 them will be supplied with tackle similar to ours next season. 



The price on salmon would raise a little every few days. There 

 were three boats buying salmon and the fish would go to the highest 

 bidder. At the last of the season we were getting from 4^ to 6% 

 cents a pound for our fish. 



