ON SNUBBING. 
E. J. MYERS. 
How to snub, or even check the 
rush of the salmon is the most difficult 
of all things connected with salmon 
angling. 
The only large salmon I ever 
hooked and played, one clearly over 
40 pounds, I lost by snubbing; i. e., 
checking and restraining the outgoing 
line. The fish in briefest instant broke 
a 14 pound dry strain leader. 
Several times have I tried it and 
disaster has come every time. It inev- 
itably obtains that you must give the 
salmon his head and follow him until 
he quiets, whether it be a mile or miles 
away. Sure as fate if you snub, some- 
thing gives way. If the fly does not 
tear out, the leader, line or rod will 
break, the canoe will capsize or you 
will fall down, and the salmon will 
escape. Some link in the chain of 
causation breaks, and mourning fol- 
lows. 
I was fishing on the reefs at the up- 
per pool of the Overfalls on the Grande 
Codroy, at the head of which is a 
heavy rush of water in which it is 
difficult to hold a large fish, while be- 
low are the treacherous sluices and 
boulders where the line must come to 
grief if the salmon gets out of the ba- 
sin. There it is that you are between 
the devil and the deep sea; and there, 
with knowledge of these facts, I cast 
and hooked the salmon of all’ salmon 
that have ever been on my line. Pat 
Downey affirmed it was the largest he 
ever saw dead or alive. Pat knows a 
thing or 2 of size, for what there may 
be of torch and spear, which surely 
kill the big salmon, that Pat has not 
practiced, I can not imagine. 
This salmon showed himself as he 
rose and fairly wallowed on the sur- 
face with a swash that sent the waves 
to my feet, and started for the sea with 
a rush that made the reel scream. Once 
and twice I checked and held the fish 
in the pool by giving the butt a-la- 
Davy Humphry. Then came the sea- 
ward start that means the next pool, if 
not lower. 
My only hope of saving the fish was 
in holding him in the basin-like pool 
barely 30 yards long and half as wide. 
I threw the rod into position and put 
my fingers on the reel spool just before 
the salmon reached the end of the 
pool. Immediately the rod broke at 
the ferrule between the second joint 
and the butt, apparently its strongest 
part, but in fact at the only weak point 
in the tackle, and in the disaster the 
reel fell off the rod. That is why I 
don’t believe in patent locks but take 
a bit of string for safety. 
That salmon may be going yet, the 
presumption being that the fact once 
shown still continues, and certainly no 
salmon with that fly in his jaws has 
been landed on the Grande Codroy. 
In sinking the wood into the male 
ferrule, a space scarce 1-32 of an inch 
had been left between the wood end of 
the butt and the female ferrule, and 
there, notwithstanding the metal band, 
it unaccountably broke. 
“They have called in 2 doctors for con- 
sultation.” 
“And do the doctors agree?” nee 
“I believe they have agreed on the price. 
~Philadelphia Ledger. 
412 
