246 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June. 1922 
Twenty-one pounds on a Jock Scott No. 6 
Good salmon water 
Getting ready to push off 
I 
tical date they will be caught on a fly in 
the same river in the lower pools. In 
any case there are what may he termed 
early and late run fish, many of which 
long after the close of the season ascend 
with the Hunters' Moon. 
Once having spawned the fish endeavor 
to return to salt water. Such a spent 
fish is known as a “kelt,” is about one 
half its original weight, and frequently is 
locked in under the ice all winter. With 
the spring freshet they drop down stream 
and Mr. Comcau has advanced the theory 
that a kelt sheds and grows a new set of 
scales for unquestionably many such sal- 
mon are almost bright. Due to the 
premium on salmon fishing many anglers 
know no other experience than hooking 
a "black” salmon uhich, however, should 
at once he returned to the river, their 
flesh being almost white and unpalatable. 
The best available water is known as 
“made fishing." That is to say, where 
a suitable river is unpolluted by sawdust, 
in the pools undisturbed by dynamite and 
carrion, fly fishing is possible after at 
least five years of stocking and protec- 
tion. The yearling fish, no longer than 
one's thumb, will take a fly fully its own 
size. At two years, when a “smolt," he 
goes to sea, to return in three or four 
years as a “grilse,” generally with the 
later runs, weighing from two to six 
])Ounds. Generally he returns the fol- 
lowing year as a salmon weighing from 
six to eight or ten pounds, and in time 
will acquire a weight of sixty pounds as 
we know from the records of net fisher- 
men. 
It is sometimes customary for the Gov- 
ernment hatcheries to mark young fish 
with a silver tag attached to the fin and 
an odd fish has been taken with such a 
tag in European rivers. There is also 
reason for the belief that some fish do 
not always return each year and rvhether 
or not they frequent some other river or 
stav in salt water is debatable. The 
stocking of inland lakes with Atlantic 
salmon fry has not proven a success. At 
any rate there are large fish rivers and 
small fish rivers where the average catch 
on the fly may run from thirteen or nine- 
teen, to six or seven pounds. 
As to the pools where salmon will take 
the fly many ideas have been advanced. 
Our own observations seem to indicate 
that providing the slime on the bottom 
has not been disturbed fish will rest in 
water that is fed by visible or invisible 
springs of ice-cold water. Pools at the 
forks of a river are sometimes filled in 
by sand and the course of the current 
changed by ice-jams in the spring. Until 
the last few years the theory was preva- 
lent that salmon a certain distance above 
tidewater would not take the fly, which 
theory we now know to be incorrect. 
W ITH the evolution of the bamboo 
rod tbe American angler bas brok- 
en away from many ethics of established 
British theories, such light rods, as will 
measure thirteen feet in length and weigh 
sixteen ounces, replacing the seventeen 
foot, twenty-four ounce greenheart. In 
particular one American rodmaker has 
a secret method of treating his bamboo 
(possibly with creosote) which gives it a 
peculiar lasting virility. The pool where 
such a light rod will not handle a fish is 
the exception, the heavy rod being only 
justified in fishing exceedingly strong 
water where an extra long cast is some- 
times necessary. Most fish, however, arc 
hooked on less than fifty feet of line, not 
infrequently when one is reeling in. To 
cast a fly for five or six hours a day is a 
strenuous task and consequently a heavy 
rod is more tiring, and very apt, espe- 
cially in fishing "still” pools, to frighten 
an otherwise taking fish ; for contrary to 
the general belief many still pools if left 
undisturbed till the evening will average 
more salmon than adjacent pools where 
there is a strong current and conse- 
quently easier casting. It is most impor- 
tant, however, that your bamboo salmon 
rod be equipped with a proper “strip- 
ping," agate-lined guide and an agate- 
lined tip. .'\s delivered, such rods almost 
invariably have a German silver tip 
which will show wear and in time cut the 
line. 
Whatever may be the tyjie of rod and 
its method of use the question of a reel 
is more important for an inferior rod 
with a good reel will land more fish than 
the best rod equipped with a poor reel. 
Not infrequently in a single run will a 
large fish burn out the bearings of a 
cbea]) reel. One of the best reels now 
obtainable will house something over two 
hundred yards of line and possess suffi- 
cient drag to prevent the line overrunning 
and making possible a backlash. Its con- 
cave sides, though all good reels are not 
necessarily concave, also prevents the tre- 
mendous pressure from pressing the sides 
and causing a jam. Under no circum- 
stances should the fingers touch the line 
in either hooking or playing a salmon ; 
the exception being the use of an old 
reel in the hands of an experienced fish- 
erman. In feeding from the reel a line 
should bear on a bushing as a strong 
pressure will cut into the aluminum 
cross pieces of the best reels. The reel 
is underneath while casting and imme- 
diately turned over on a fish being 
hooked, thus bringing into full play the 
action of the rod which is so finely bal- 
anced as to respond and maintain, when 
properly handled, a constant and even 
pressure. 
Of late years the favorite line is a 
tapered, vacuum-dressed model, some 
forty yards in length and spliced to about 
two hundred yards of cuttyhunk. It 
would seem that a similar line "hard- 
dressed,” or of the enamel type would 
find favor because of its ability to 
“shoot,” the soft vacuum line frequently 
coiling and uncoiling when being un- 
reeled. Care in any case must be taken 
to see that a line is properly dried and 
tested for weak places. As in trout fish- | 
ing the weight of a line should be suffi- 
cient to bring out tbe action of the rod. 
The older custom was to fish for sal- 
mon with nine-foot leaders. These are 
gradually being replaced with six-foot ■ 
leaders, especially as in bringing a fish || 
to gaff the rod tip is not infrequently but j| 
six feet, or less above the water. Under j 
such circumstances a long leader may, at ' 
the knot in the end of the line, catch on j 
the tip and provide sufficient pressure to 
tear loose the hook. Leaders may be 
looped or tied to eyed-flies and should be 
tested for knots etc., daily. 
T he que.stion of salmon flies is allur- [ 
ing and non-conclusive. If there is |! 
any general rule it is to use large flies I: 
in the early season on heavy or dark !' 
water ; changing to small flies with low f 
and clear water. In very small flies such , 
as the No. 10 and No. 8, double hooks t 
are'pi'eferrcd, especially in the late sea- I 
son when the fish are not quite so firm 1; 
as when fresh run. There is no definite i 
rule for the size of flies used and most II 
anglers are guided by their experience 'I 
on the river in question. We proved on 
several occasions that the lenses of a | 
salmon’s eye greatly magnified the flies I 
used, yet when compared with the lenses ^ 
taken from the eyes of trout, taken in j| 
the same water, the magnification of the , 
trout was fully double that of the sal- ■ 
mon. It is reasonable to assume, how- ; 
ever, that on a single river within a radius 1 
of half a dozen miles that the manner in j! 
which salmon will rise to a fly is radically I 
different. I have for instance raised a " 
