Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-08-26
NO. 1876.
FISHERMEN'S STORIES,

journal gives pleasant account of the
experiences of Collector Arthur and
friends in salmon fishing in the Cascape-
da River. He writes:
On the morning of our second day on
the river, all hands were ready for work.
The several pools were properly divided;
each resorted to the one to which he was
assigned with high hopes and confident
antlclpations. And the result justified all
that was hoped for. Gen. Arthur, as was
proper, led in the score, although not in
weight. Mr.. Dun stood next, but Col.
Pell had caught the champion fish. His
first salmon weighed thirty-five pounds
1t was grand achievement, and he bore
his honors and good luck with becoming
meekness, although he had killed his fish
in twenty minutes. This dispatch indi-
Gated extraordinary skill in a novice No
expert could have done better. Indeed,
1t IS not once in a hundred times that
thirty-five pound salmon is brought to bay
so promptly. | was content and happy
with single fish of twenty-four pounds as
the result of my days labor. Every new
DAY brought new pleasures aud an in-
crease fish but no one caught more than
lve in any one day, and sometimes some
one IS count was nil. But every day brought
with 1t some special excitement or adven-
ture-some new incident or experience to
break the monotony of the camp and to
MAINTAIN the reputation of the sport as
more attractive, inspiriting, and exciting
than any other. Among them were these
The General had been fishing with but
passable success when the monotony was
broken by leap which indicated greater
weight and dimensions than anything with
which he had yet been favored. With the
promptness of an expert, he struck at the
right moment, and with the exact force
requisite to hook his fish strongly-a great
art, which few salmon anglers ever ac-
quire perfectly. Then followed a strug-
gle which Justified his estimate of the
weight of the fish. For more than an hour,
every known appliance was used in vain
to bring him to gaf'. He sulked, plunged,
leaped, and rushed as impetuously at the
end Of the hour as during the first five
minutes after heiwas hooked. He made
no sign of surrender or weariness, and
was in one of his worst tantrums when
the reel clogged. Any one with less ex-
perlence and persistency than the General
would have thrown up the sponge" at
such a mishap. But he was equal to the
emergency. The canoe was forced rap
idly forward to the beach, which was
fortunately unobstructed, the General
lcaped upon terra frma with the agility
OF an acrobat, and, after an active
backward and forward movement of half
an hour, manipulating his line with his
hand, he bsgged his game, saved his tack
ling, and brought to camp thirty-four
pound salmon. Not one angler in thou
sand would have achieved such victory,
and he deserved the congratulations he re-
ceiyed when the magnificent fish was for
mally spread out for inspection. And to
this incident there is a neral. The reel
which thus clogged at the most critical mo-
ment, was made with special reference to
extra heavy work, was warranted as su-
perior to any reel which had ever found
its way upon salmon waters, and cost q
fabulous sum of money But it was de-
lusron and cheat-as worthless as tow
string for salmon line, and the cause of
harsher words with more syllables than
any reel that ever passed under my dis
gusted inspection. A reel that "ticks like
chronometer and moves like clock work"
is all very well in q show-case-to take in
greenhorns and excite the admiration of
gudgeons; but a reel with rough and
ready action and straightforward move
ments, like man with mo nonsense about
him, is the reel for service. 1t was the
last bit of work that fancy reel was called
upon to do during our three weeks on the
Cascapedia. Another incident, equally ex.
citing, but resulting less fortunately, hap
pened to the General upon another occa-
sion. He had solidly hooked another large
fish in pool where large fish pre-emi-
nently abound. He sulked persistently.
For nearly two hours he remained as i'm
movable as rock. No strain which it
was safe to impose upon the rod could
move him. He simply wouldn't stir. Moth
ing is more provoking, and nothing more
tires the patience of the of the most pa
tient angler. The fatigue is even greater
than when hooked to a fish that deems
faction. action action" quite as essential
to liberty as the rhetorician declares the
same qualities TO be indispensable 10 effec-
tive oratory. The tensions must be equally
preserved, without a moments relaxation
whatever moods the fish may assume or
whatever freaks may move him. To be
obliged to stand two hours thus, pulling
upon an immovable object, until every
muscle in ones arms seems ready to
come out in shreds, is about as wearisome
position as any angler can be placed in;
and it would not be strange if, during
some moments of q long tussle, he is in
clined to the opinion that after all, it NAV
be true, as the cynic hath said, that an
CLING is an exercise which requires rod
and line with worm at one end and fool
at the other. But even a struggle has its
compensations, and ever true angler would
gladly bear tenfold the fatigue involved
in such labors rather than surrender one
iota of the intensely pleasurable excite
ment he derives from it. But as there is
an end to all things so there is an end to
a salmon's sulks. When well
nigh weary TO exhaustion,
and when almost ready to make the
effort to force him from his hole if every
inch of rod and tackle should be smashed
in the effort, the patient angler found the
fish running as madly as he before had
sulked. More than 200 feet of line went
out of the reel in a flash; and it became
now even harder to stop than it was be-
fore to start him. Rush followed rush in
such quick succession that scarcely ward
of line remained in reserve. The only
hope was in the equally rapid movement