June, 1922 
FOREST AND STREAM 
245 
THE FINE ART OF SALMON FISHING 
ONCE YOU HAVE FAIRLY AND SQUARELY OUTWITTED THIS 
NOBLE FISH ALL OTHER ANGLING EXPERIENCES ARE FORGOTTEN 
O F a July afternoon, a few sea- 
sons ago, with Jimmie Waters, I 
pushed off into the current of the 
Southeast Branch. All day we 
had alternately poled, paddled and waded 
amid the uncertain depths of the upper 
waters and with that satisfaction which 
is the aftermath of diligence and fatigue 
we leaned back against the luxury of 
hastily arranged duffle. We sped on, 
lulled to a mutual appreciation by the 
murmur of the rapids. Out of the mystic 
North on the wings of that marvelous 
twilight there descended the savor of 
salmon water. We seemed to sniff its 
freshness and virility as the sun, for all 
the world like a giant shrugging its 
shoulders, dropped behind the forest 
slopes, while out of the shaded gulches 
the incense of evening arose. Below us 
the river hummed and purred, mountain 
clear, while beyond a bunch of hard- 
woods in the last amber glow sparkled 
against the velvet background like a dia- 
mond cluster. There had ascended from 
the ocean in the wake of its mysterious 
sojourner, a tang, salt and vital, distilled 
by a hundred miles of forest. One fairly 
tingled with anticipation. 
Perhaps unto the Baie de Chaleur is 
this charm distinct ; peyadventure one 
must possess the soul of a salmon fisher- 
man like unto which there is no other. 
If you take one part environment, and 
one part fish, and one the killing of the 
fish aforesaid on tackle of given weight 
and specie, you may create such a soul 
and then one is concerned with what 
manner of fish is the Atlantic salmon. 
He is a square-tail that takes the fly in 
fresh water and establishes precedents 
He is as uncertain as an exquisite woman 
and equally as expensive. Once you have 
outwitted him fair and square all other 
fly fishing is a memory. His whimsical 
nature is the subject of vast conversa- 
tions by tubby old gentlemen who have 
reached the golf stage and travel at least 
a thousand miles a season to wet a fly. 
He has had my utmost respect for a 
dozen seasons and when one considers 
By DOUGLAS WETMORE CLINCH 
N his treatment of the methods 
followed by the salmon fisherman, 
Mr. Clinch has drawn freely from a 
luide knowledge of the subject and 
has so happily blended narrative 
with wise counsel that his article 
ivill delight the experienced angler 
as well as prove of immense practical 
value to the novice. — [Editors.] 
such delightful books as that of tlie 
late Mr. Wells and the more recent pub- 
lication (1909) of Mr. Napoleon Co- 
mcau, one hesitates to write of such a 
paradoxical subject for at the best one 
can but observe. 
Selecting the proper fly 
1 MA(jI.\E, first, such a river as 1 have 
* humbly attempted to describe. From 
the crest of the watershed countless ice- 
cold brooks feed a mountainous, gravel- 
bed stream that winds in and about in- 
numerable ledges where the force and 
swing of the current has created pools. 
They may be large pools or small pools 
with a perceptible or imperceptible cur- 
rent. .\t the headwaters of such streams 
or at least here and there along the shore 
are suitable spawning grounds. To de- 
posit their spawn the .Atlantic salmon 
ascends from salt water, pausing en route 
in certain pools in many of which under 
certain conditions, or again in defiance 
of certain conditions, they take the fly. 
\\ e have record of them so doing as 
early as February in some rivers; as late 
as October in other rivers. Where in 
the ocean a salmon spends the winter is 
uncertain but since deep-sea fishermen 
have netted .salmon during the \s inter it 
is quite possible they may linger in the 
vicinity of the mouths of the rivers in 
which they spawn. We do know that in 
approaching the mouths of rivers a sal- 
mon will for some miles parallel the 
shore line and we are almost certain that 
before they ascend above tidewater they 
spend some time in becoming acclimateJ. 
'I'liey feed in salt water and will there 
sometimes take a sand eel bait and spin- 
ner. Once above tidewater the |)ercent- 
age of fish in whose stomachs any food 
has been found is ridiculously small. 
\\ by they take a fly remains a mystery. 
It has been established, however, that 
while in salt water a salmon travels 
by daytime and while in fresh water at 
night, though I recall having met sal- 
mon ascending rapids at high noon. 
Emerging from salt water they carry 
what is known as sea-lice which cling to 
them for about thirty-six hours and in 
certain rivers I have killed salmon with 
sea-lice upon them fully seventy miles 
above the tide. On c>ne verv famous 
river there is a pool fully seventv miles 
up where fish will be taken on the iden- 
