June, 1922 
FOREST AND STREAM 
247 
Poling up strong water The salmon is on Better water higher up 
fish on a No. 2, to hook and land the 
same fish on a No. 8 a few minutes later. 
The following day on an adjacent pool 
I have raised a salmon on a No. 8 and 
hooked it on a No. 2. Of course there 
was always the possibility that the fish 
raised was not the same fish hooked, 
which, however, seemed doubtful. We 
have record of an experienced angler 
having fished till the fish stopped rising 
and substituting the most outlandish type 
of fly for the orthodox model, to land a 
37-pound fish a few minutes later. 
Salmon will frequently rise to a trout- 
fly taking such models as the Parma- 
chene Belle or a Royal Coachman. One 
of my late lamented apostles on one oc- 
casion located seven salmon in the lower 
end of a pool and succeeded in landing 
six of them on a Parmachene Belle. On 
his return to town he had some salmon 
flies tied on the same model, on none of 
which he was ever again successful in 
killing a fish. 
Whatever bodies may be selected for 
salmon flies it does seem reasonable that 
the angle or “set”of a double hook is 
important. For this reason experienced 
fishermen seem to agree that more fish 
will be landed on a single hook than on 
a double hook. 
If there are general conclusions re- 
garding flies it seems that fish will, on 
a raise of water, suddenly commence to 
take and on such occasions almost any 
fly will suffice. Quite as suddenly they 
will refuse to take. They will take a fly 
in the very midst of a thunder and 
lightning storm despite what has been 
recorded to the contrary. “Rising” fish, 
or those that will frequently break all 
round your canoe, seldom take the fly, 
though occasionally such fish can 1)C 
hooked 1)y moving upstream and allow- 
ing the fly to drift down from a differ- 
ent angle. Experienced salmon fisher- 
men, however, believe that care should 
be exercised to see when a fly sweeps 
over or above a salmon that the leader 
and line is straight and not curled, whicli 
fact may account for many fish being 
hooked on a comparatively short line 
M'hich allows for the rod to impart to the 
fly the proper movement. Most fish are 
hooked on a sunken fly taking the same 
under water ; others again will take a 
fly drawn across the surface and in- 
stances are known where fish have come 
out of water for flies four or five inches 
above the surface. An assortment of 
flics generally contains such silver bodies 
as the Silver Grey, Silver Doctor, Black 
Dose, Durham Ranger, Jock Scott and 
Wilkinson, while marked success has 
been the reward of an fmgler using vary- 
ing sizes of a single fly such as the 
Doctor. We have no record of any 
marked success in American waters of 
the use of the spoon or sand-eel bait, ex- 
cept in tide-water fishing. 
Most casting is done from a canoe, the 
more experienced anglers fishing from a 
sitting position which prevents the fish, 
in low and clear water especially, from 
seeing the angler. On lower and large 
pools one can generally cast from either 
side, allowing the fly to be sucked under 
and swung over and above the fish at an 
angle of about forty-five degrees till the 
line is all out and straight. Towards 
headwaters, however, many excellent 
pools are fished only from one side and 
frequently on both upper and lower pools. 
After a pool has l)ecn thoroughly 
whipped from above, fish will be taken 
by casting directly across the current and 
sometime upstream. Many pools can not 
be fished from a canoe and should be 
cast over from the shore. It is some- 
times customary to erect landings or 
platforms from which the angler can 
cast over a pool otherwise not available 
except by deep wading, a position which 
frequently interferes with the backcast. 
/^N hooking a fish the rod should lie 
held as nearly vertical as possible 
and the play of the rod and the drag of 
the reel be given full use. Much depends 
on the nature of the pool, the majority 
of anglers at once going ashore and hold- 
ing the canoe in readiness. When a sal- 
mon makes a run, frequently to break 
water at the end of the run, the line 
should be sufficiently slack to prevent 
the salmon striking the leader with its 
tail while the line is fairly taut. Anglers 
do not agree regarding the striking of 
a fish when first hooked, as the rod is 
supposed to supply sufficient si)ring to 
set the hook. Many anglers drop the tip 
when a salmon breaks water but this 
point is also a matter of opinion. It 
seems to be tbe general belief, however, 
that if a cast is made correcth' a straight 
line does not require any striking to set 
the hook ; that a modern bamboo rod will 
take care of all pressure brought to bear 
upon it when a salmon breaks and there 
is a fair length of line in the water. .\ 
fish hooked immediately above a rapid 
should, if possible, at once be steered up- 
stream. If a third party is present, or 
the guide has an opportunity, it is fre- 
(piently wise to endeavor to move a sal- 
mon upstream by throwing rocks into 
the water a few yards below the fish. 
This is also true of fish which will 
“sound” and refuse to move, endeavour- 
ing meanwhile to "bore” in its effort to 
free the hook on the bottom or wind the 
leader about some obstruction. I'rc- 
quently fish have to be followed down- 
stream, sometimes for a distance of a 
mile or more. They should then be 
brought to the net on shore as the gaffing 
or netting of a fish from a canoe brings 
an undue strain on even the best of rofis 
and will sometimes warp the tip. On a 
good beach it is comparatively sinqfle to 
sometimes “beach” a salmon. 'I'his is 
accomplished hy heading the fish for the 
beach and guiding its next run. .\s soon 
as the salmon feels the sand beneath it, 
the driving force of its tail then brings 
it high and dry above the waterline 
where it at once must be .secured. This 
is excellent sport, especially when an an- 
gler is alone and fishing from the shore. 
Opinions differ as to how soon the 
angler should make another cast over a 
risen salmon. Mo.st fish in rising to a fly 
come some distance through the water 
and time should be allowed for them to 
return and assume their original ])osition. 
This may be five or more minutes, dur- 
ing which time the line has been retrieved 
by hand and carefully curled in the bot- 
tom of tbe canoe. On making the next 
cast tbe exact length of line which 
brought about the rise is established and 
the same fly may be used or a smaller 
size of tbe same model. On occasion a 
fish may be hooked by immediately mak- 
ing a second cast as in trout fishing. 
if N looking back into the archives of 
* the past. I have memories of glorious 
days of fishing when the mist rose from 
the curling ])ooI (for to fi.'.h any jiuol be- 
fore the mist rises is sheer folly ) and of 
the e\enings and crisj) afternoons where 
the luxury of the noon-day sun had given 
place to the cooler zest of the twilight. 
Like .safety lights there glow the recollec- 
tions of the hooking of two fish under 
circumstances incoherent, as in only -al- 
mon fishing is possible. There have been 
other fish hooked at noon day and at 
evening: the wading of broad waters to 
drop a fly over a fresh - run blueback : 
golden hours when we first jiushed up 
the River of Leaning Trees and limmie 
^^'aters waded ashore with a broken net 
and salmon and sweater all in one. T'c> 
nings when the fish all but stood on their 
