THE LUCK OF SALMON FISHING 93 
met says so. I venture to think, however, that my 
friend, Arthur Chaytor, K.C., one of the most 
accomphshed and skilful of salmon fishers, in his 
delightful book. Letters to a Salmon - Fisher' s 
Sons, is altogether too severe in his castigation 
of minnow -fishing. " Avoid minnow-fishing for 
salmon," he says (page 89), " as a canker that will 
eat into some of the very best days of your fly- 
fishing." But need it do so ? " It is a dangerous 
thing for you to begin its use." 
Then in a most entertaining passage he 
describes how " the river has cleared and has 
become perfect for the fly. It ought to be a tip- 
top day, but you are tempted of the devil to try 
just for an hour the phantom minnow . . . and then 
you go on with the minnow all the day long . . . 
dragging out the fish . . . and at the end of the 
day feeling that you have been rather a butcher 
than a fisherman and that you might almost as 
well have used a net." This means, of course, 
that success in minnow-fishing is simply a matter 
of luck, and does not depend on the fisherman's 
skill. In a later passage he describes in most 
forcible and amusing language " the relapse to 
minnow, when after a good day minnowing you 
find next morning that the water is right for 
