Salmon fly

“ Sometimes a large landing-net is used to land the fish, but though this prevents the spoiling of a portion of the fish by avoiding the need for making a hole with the gaff, it is less convenient and of more risk to the safety of the fish. The most favourite plan of fishing for salmon is with the fly, though in many places they will also take both worm and minnow freely, and are thus fished for. The salmon-fly is a most wonderful conglo meration of feathers, silks, and tinsels, and oftentimes is as brilliant as the most glittering humming-bird. ”

“ There are few varieties of fish which may not either consistently or occasionally be taken with the sunk fly in one of its two forms. The large and gaudy bunch of feathers, silk and tinsel with which salmon, very large trout, black bass and occasionally other predaceous fish are taken is not, strictly speaking, a fly at all. It rather represents, if anything, some small fish or subaqueous creature on which the big fish is accustomed to feed and it may conveniently receive the generic name of salmon-fly. ”

“ It is a long cast; but the fisherman throws a fine line, and the fly admirably hove skims through the air and drops like a natural insect just where the little holly-tree overshadows the water. Again that glimpse of a silvery form mounting swiftly upwards to the surface; and mark the swirling boils, indicating the rise of a heavy fish. There is a pull at the fly; the angler sharply raises the point of his rod, and once more he has hooked a lordly salmon. ”

“ In the salt water, salmon never take the fly, and rarely bait of any kind, although they feed on sand eels and small fish in addition to shell-fish; but as they advance into brackish or fresh water, they either miss their natural food and become hungry, or get accustomed to feeding on grasshoppers and insects, and are deceived by the artificial fly, and will at times take the bait. ”

“ Although the salmon float within sight and reach in the most transparent stream, they will not touch the fly, be it thrown even on their noses. The only reason that can be given for this notorious fact is, that the salmon, when they leave the sea, are generally gorged, and do not desire, or seek for food until they have travelled some distance up the rivers; for it is equally well ascertained that the farther the first foss is removed from the mouth of a salmon river, the more voracious are the fish. ”

“ The fly is frequently taken when it sinks deeply from a slack line; sometimes when in the act of sinking, and sometimes when it is being raised slowly, as by the winding of the reel; and at other times when the angler, stumbling over rough stones, accidentally jerks about his hook. A salmon frequently rushes to the surface after a fly that is being quickly drawn up for a fresh cast, and others take a fly when being dragged slowly up stream by the angler walking along the bank. Some salmon take the fly with a grand rush. ”

“ Jack directs them to a bend higher up, where they will find a second pool as good as this one, with a more favorable slant of wind, while I put my rod together and turn over the leaves of my fly-book. Among the marvels of art and nature I know nothing equal to a salmon-fly. It resembles no insect, winged or unwinged, which the fish can have seen. A shrimp, perhaps, is the most like it, if there are degrees to utter dissimilarity. Yet every river is supposed to have its favorite flies. Size, color, shape, all are peculiar. ”

“ Where learned doctors disagree, I, for one, do not venture to decide; but when I remember that on some days no fly in my book would tempt the trout, and that at other times they would rise at any or all flies, it seems to me that the principal question is, Are the trout feeding or not? If they are, they will take almost anything; if not, the most skillful hand may fail of tempting them to rise. As to salmon, I think no one will pretend that the salmon-flies commonly used are like anything in Nature, and it is difficult to understand what the keen-eyed salmon takes them for. ”

“ The salmon should [178] be thrown for with this sort of fly, in rapid currents rushing into deep holes, where the fish lie. The winged larva would do well in such places for grilse and sea-trout. In the spring, flies the size of No. 12, are used, with long thin silk bodies of orange, yellow, red, and green colours, red hackles, jay and mixed wings, with red feathers prevailing in them, and black heads, ribbed with gold and silver tinsel. The fifteen painted Salmon Flies will be found great killers in this river, varied in size according to the state of the water. ”

“ When there is any current, and it is rare to take salmon elsewhere, the fly is cast across the stream and allowed to swing over the fish, which invariably lie with their heads up-stream. When a salmon intends to rise, he generally separates himself from his companions and waits till the fly approaches to the precise distance that pleases him. ”

“ It is extremely interesting to stand on the rocks overhanging the river and watch the salmon, their every motion distinctly visible, and their numbers readily counted. When one is casting the fly, his companion can see the fish move to take it, and call out when to strike. Salmon seem to rise very slowly and deliberately and can be observed of a bright day together in crowds, holding their own against the current with a scarcely perceptible effort. Not one in a hundred will notice the fly ”

“ The flies to be used are the ordinary small-sized salmon flies, not too gaudy, though the first dropper and tail fly may be larger and made of white and ibis feathers mixed. In casting you will use your ordinary cast, but in trolling you may attach five or six flies to a long salmon leader at equal distances, and will frequently take several fish at a time. My experience has convinced me that a number of flies attract fish, whether trout or bass, and the more you can conveniently use the greater will be your success. ”

“ When they come from the deep to spawn in the streams, they invariably return to the same river in which they themselves have been spawned. Fish from, the same water average the same size. A river known for the lustiness of its salmon may rise from the same source as another stream in which only small fish are found. The salmon of the Atlantic coast, contrary to the habit of its Pacific cousin, takes the fly in fresh water. Why they rise to bait at all is an enigma since it has been proven that while in river pools for months at a time they maintain a rigid fast. ”

“ If you fail to hook a fish on the first rise, it is well if you can keep your impatience under control, to rest him by casting elsewhere a few times, and if you fail to strike him on the third rise, change your fly. Salmon are extremely particular and dainty in their tastes, and it is never advisable to fish too long with one fly unless they take it well. ”

“ Another thing that should be remembered is, that salmon never take the natural fly while it is in a stationary position, or when floating down stream; hence the great importance of carrying the artificial fly directly across the stream, or in an upward oblique direction. When you have hooked a salmon, it is a bad plan to strain upon him in any degree, unless he is swimming towards a dangerous ground, and even then this is an unsafe experiment. ”

“ In fishing a cast, the angler casts diagonally across down stream, and draws the fly up stream towards him, softly raising and lowering the top of the rod so as to check and loosen the fly alternately, and to make all its fibres open and shut so as to counterfeit life. When a salmon rises to the fly he either makes a big bulge or boil in the water, or, if he is unusually eager, he throws his head and half his body above the surface, rolling over like a porpoise in his endeavour to seize the fly ”

“ Every hackle and colour that is used for making a salmon fly must be of the richest dye imaginable, that they may show brilliant and good to the fish's eye at the bottom of the water, and entice them to rise and take it at the top. The hackles must be taken from old cocks, both the neck and saddle ones, as [233] they hold the dye best. Wool is not good for the fly, as it soaks the water, and is dull and heavy. ”

“ Nothing escapes his keen notice as he casts his flies, hither and yon, in the eager expectation of a rise.
Fly-fishing is, indeed, the poetry of angling. The capture of the salmon is an epic poem, the taking of the trout an idyl. But it is not my presumptuous purpose to ring the changes on the delights of salmon or trout fishing, for they have been immortalized by the pens of gifted anglers for ages. ”

“ It is the custom, the instant the salmon takes the fly, for the rower to pull towards the shore with as much celerity and judgment as possible, neither to drive the boat too swiftly through the water, or loiter too slowly, both extremes endangering the chance of capturing your salmon. That part of the stream where P—— fished, was about forty yards below a rapid, and, indeed, ran with the current of a sluice; and the reader may imagine, that, a very little impetus given to the pram against this current, would increase the pressure of a large salmon on a small gut line. ”

“ It would be well if sportsmen should call the fish in question respectively salmon fry, grilse, and salmon, and eschew all other fanciful names, as leading only to confusion.
Salmon are never taken in fresh water with any food in their stomachs; they are reported not to eat their young, and do not apparently feed on flies. The fry feed almost entirely on flies, and I have seen them pick off one after another as skillfully as a trout; but I have never distinctly seen a salmon take a natural fly. ”

“ These two are models of a plain, and gaudy Irish fly; the delicacy of the body of the gaudy one, as the silk and tinsel is so finely wrought between each joint of harl and hackles, is beyond compare; and the wing is finely mixed, although [20] not so perfect as the beautiful engravings of the twelve salmon flies.
Before I begin the gaudy salmon fly, I will here show how the palmer is made, in two or three ways. ”

“ Are we to credit salmon with such extraordinary intelligence as to believe them able to differentiate between varieties of almost similar flies, and to have such a correct eye for colour as to refuse a fly because the colour of the body or hackle is a shade unorthodox? The size of the fly, no doubt, is a most [89] important factor, both as regards the size and volume of the river and the time of the year. It would be the height of absurdity to use in fine run water in the summer a three inch fly that would be a suitable lure on the brawling Thurso in the spring, and vice versâ. ”

“ On the other hand, there are frequent examples of salmon rising most determinedly several times in rapid succession, and each time giving a tug at the fly; and there are cases, as we know personally, in which both fly and worm hooks have been struck into the fish’s mouth, the line broken, and the same fish caught by the same angler a few minutes later with a similar lure, and brought to bank with the two severed hooks in its mouth. ”

“ The noblest of fish, the mighty salmon, refuses bait utterly, and only with the most artistic tackle and the greatest skill can he be taken; the trout, which ranks second to the salmon, demands an almost equal perfection of bait, and in his true season, the genial days of spring and summer, scorns every allurement but the tempting fly. The black bass prefers the fly, but will take the trolling spoon, and even bait, at all seasons ”

“ I need not explain their formation, as they are too well known to the fly fishers. Notwithstanding [157] all this, the generous renter of the fishery at the Leap of Coleraine, gives liberty to all anglers visiting the Bann, from March to August, and the courtesy and politeness which he evinces towards gentlemen, causes him to take no notice of their fishing with the salmon fly till September. I have been informed by Mr. Moore, the inn-keeper, at Portna, that there is now a "Queen's Gap" made in the "cuts," on Sundays, to allow some of the salmon to escape. This is a great boon to the angler. ”

“ The Salmon, the various species of Trout, some of them little inferior in magnitude or strength to that kingly fish; the brilliant Grayling, with his dorsal like a butterfly's wing, and the Charr, with its refulgent sides, "the aristocracy of the finny race," inhabit these elevated streams and lakes; and for these does the enterprising fly-fisher visit the most remote and least accessible parts of our country. ”

“ More interesting, if not so stimulating, is the leap of the salmon at obstructing falls, with the air filled with dozens of darting, tumbling, and falling fish—the foam dashing and sparkling in the sun, the air resonant with roar, and damp with the ever-tossing spray. ”

“ I fear the canneries are causing too many to be killed now.
An uninitiated person would have thought that great sport could be had just now on the Fraser with rod and line. In this, had he made the experiment, he would have been grievously mistaken. The salmon when on the run never rise to the fly or takes any food. They start from the ocean very fat and live on their fat until the spawning season is over, by which time they become so lean as to be scarcely edible. ”

“ Where Nature has done her best, only fools rush in to improve. On the salmonids, fresh and salt, she has lavished her creative refinements. Cookery should only ripen and develop.”—Theodore Winthrop.
“As a general thing, it is a waste of time to be forever changing your flies. If the trout are not rising, it is entirely useless to fling an assortment of flies at them.”—T. S. Up de Graff, M.D.
“In taking the fly, I award the palm to the trout, as he usually throws himself out of the water to do so. The salmon does not, he scarcely more than shows himself ”