July 9, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
59 
land these waters are known as spate rivers, and 
the term is a happy one, for without a spate, or 
flood, the angler will have no sport whether 
there be salmon in the pools or not. 
Without doubt the late salmon river gives the 
angler the most delightful sport of his life, but 
the fishing has its strict limitations which must 
never be lost sight of. When a night’s rain sets 
the stream tossing and foaming on its seaward 
way, every salmon in the pool is astir, and when 
the water gets into nice moderate condition, 
sport is assured. Success and failure are alike 
certain in their due conditions on the spate river. 
In a nice size water, some fish are sure to rise, 
and on many a Donegal or Mayo moorland tor¬ 
rent in late August, ten or twelve salmon in a 
SALMON IN A RIVER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
Courtesy of T. Monot. 
day have often fallen to a single rod when the 
flood was in nice ply. But when the stream runs 
down, which it often will in a very few brief 
hours, every fish sinks down and lies low be¬ 
hind the scattered boulders or crouches timidly 
underneath the hollow banks. 
At such times all angling is vain and nothing 
remains but to sit indoors, watch the barometer 
or scan the wet point of the wind for signs of 
rising rain clouds and hope for the best. No 
other form of angling is so subject to raptures 
and disappointments alike as this, and it is ob¬ 
viously not the sort of thing which appeals to 
every visitor with but a few days only at his 
command. But undoubtedly when it does come 
off, it is glorious, and a joy never 'to be for¬ 
gotten. There are many hotels in the west which 
have considerable stretches of late waters at¬ 
tached to them for the delectation of their 
guests, and in most cases the fishing is free and 
the salmon belong to the angler. The fly, too, 
is almost exclusively used, and in some cases 
the angler is specifically restricted to it. 
These rivers of course must be said to have 
but one migration of fish, and the destruction 
of spring fish, peel and backenders about which 
we had so much to say in the case of early 
rivers is here practically lost. At the same time 
this is strictly and scientifically not so in reality. 
There are even here earlier and later fish or, 
rather, spring and autumn fish, for the difference 
is not merely one of earlier or later run, but of 
actual quality. And we have found this singular 
differentiation in some waters fully applicable 
to sea trout also. Thus on an early August day 
the angler will rise and 
kill a nine-pound salmon 
which will put up a 
splendid fight, and when 
brought to gaff will 
prove a perfect bar of 
silver and later as ' fine 
“a dish of meat” as any 
springer of February. 
And then the next fish 
will fight dull, be off 
color, and on the table 
will leave very much to 
be desired. And the 
very same thing may 
happen on the last day 
of the season, while in 
both cases it may happen 
that the better fish is the 
longer time in the river. 
The d i ff er e n c e is, 
therefore, one of kind, 
not of degree merely, 
and in the case of sea 
trout the present writer 
has a most vivid recol¬ 
lection of returning four 
or five of these fish to 
the river on a certain 
Oct. 31, while retaining 
three others which were 
not merely good, but the 
very best fish of the 
whole season. The fish 
returned were one and 
all bad, even impossibly 
bad, dull gray in color, 
and in flesh white, soft 
and tasteless; in fact, 
quite unfit for food. Nor was it necessary to 
wait till the fish was landed to find out what 
it was like. The inferior fish when hooked 
feebly yielded almost at once and were plainly 
in a state of utter physical debility. The 
others were full of fire and dash, perfect, too, 
in form and coloring. Such a contrast can 
not for a moment be explained by a mere week 
or two longer or shorter in the river, and so in 
late river fishing one may be prepared for a 
good fish, salmon or sea trout, up to the last 
day of the season, while the earliest date itself 
is no sufficient guarantee that every fish taken 
on that day must necessarily be a perfectly good 
one. 
Back end rivers being in general small, their 
names are but little known, save locally, so that 
we need make no ’ attempt here to enumerate 
them, though a few of them, chiefly the outlet 
The Angler in Ireland. 
Coming next to the late salmon rivers of the 
country we find these waters as a rule all dis¬ 
tinguished by well marked characteristics. They 
are small, rocky and torrential, lovely streams 
tumbling down the rugged slopes and brawling 
through the pretty glens of the lonely moun¬ 
tainous seaboard of the west 1 and south, and 
quickly finding their home in the great Atlantic. 
For though small, they are yet main rivers, not 
tributaries of larger ones, and make their way 
to the sea direct. Salmon begin to assemble 
about their mouths early in June, and with the 
first flood after the middle of that month, a few 
of the advance guard battle their way up the 
swollen stream, and then 
the run continues stead¬ 
ily on till the close of 
September or even later. 
Sea trout also come in 
at the same time in 
most of them, but these 
most sporting little fish 
exhibit considerable ca¬ 
priciousness in their 
movements, entering 
some rivers in great 
numbers, while in 
others, which seem quite 
as suitable for them, 
few or none are to be 
found. They also vary 
considerably in size, 
running from one pound 
to four or five pounds, 
or even more, but two 
pounds may be taken as 
a very good all-round 
average. To the eye the 
sea trout is simply a 
miniature salmon. Its 
life history, too, seems 
identical with that of 
its bigger and more 
distinguished relation. It 
takes the fly well and 
is without doubt for its 
weight and inches the 
most sporting fish that 
swims. Its fight with 
the rod is a desperate 
series of rushes and wild 
springs out of the water, 
and the angler’s first 
day with the leaping silver sea trout just up 
from the sea with the earliest flood of August 
is a delightful experience which will often re¬ 
visit him in dreams. 
A few good sea trout rivers also have no run 
of salmon at all, or only a few late fish coming 
up in October or late September. There is no 
doubt the late river is simply one the salmon are 
afraid to enter in spring. A saving instinct 
warns them against risking a whole year in such 
small waters crowded in the shrunken pools in 
May or June, and all the summer through they 
would certainly in years of drouth perish whole¬ 
sale in the deqxygenated waters, and so in effect 
they wisely aim at making their visit at once a 
brief and late one when the water is likely to 
be at the fullest. And the fish of these rivers 
are small, few of them except at the end of the 
season exceeding ten pounds in weight. In Scot¬ 
