Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-12
A SALMON,s "WHIZ. ;,
The Fish That Climbs as Easy as You
Would Go Down a Pole.

Houiu 20 Down Pole.
Old Fisherman.
'Fd rather catch one 25-pound salmon
than wagon load of any other fish that
swims. What do you think of having to
chase fish two miles or more after you've
got your hook in it, and, after you catch
up with it, having to tussle with it like a
Gr9co-Roman wrestler for an hour, may
be, before it'll throw up the sponge? Well,
had to do that last season with a salmon
and he wasn't an extra large one either
lie only weighed twenty-three pounds.
The salmon rivers are all streams with
swift currents, whirlIng rapids and high
falls. You won't find this king of fish in
any other kind of water. 1t doesn't make
any difference how like a railroad train
the water may run, or how steep the falls
are, the salmon goes up stream lust as
easy as he does down. A salmon will 90
up an almost perpendicular fall as slick
as You could slide down a creased tele-
graph pole.
Ibid you ever see a salmon take thefy?
Well, then, when your first salmon ap-
pears to you you won't know whether to
faint or shout 'Hallelujah!' The salmon's
haunt, when he is lying in wait for prey,
is IN some deep, quiet pool, where the
water eddies and hesitates, and then
passes slowly on. From the bank above
this pool, or from your canoe, you cast
your fly on its surface. Now, the beauty
about salmon fishing is that your tackle
isn't much heavier than if you were whip
ping some mountain brook for trout
Your rod is elastic and strong. and your
reel must hold at least 800 feet of fine silk
line. Your fly drops lightly on the surface.
and if the salmon is in the humor he goes
for it at once. Now, a trout rises to a fly
with swoop and a whirl, and away he
goes. Your salmon darts from his hiding
place in meteor fashion also, but before he
reaches the fly he pauses within a few
inches of it. The pious guides cross them
selves at this interesting moment. HE
is saying his grace they say. Then the
salmon rises, opens his mouth. and draws
it in, and drops back toward the bottom.
That is, when he gets himself in trouble.
In dropping down he sets the hook firmly
in his upper jaw, and then is when he be-
gins to get you in trouble. As soon as he
feels the hook things begin to boil. Away
he'll go and take 100 feet of your line
off your reel before you know
it. Then the chances are that
he'll take another course, perhaps
straight toward you, and then you've
got 70 work to take up that slack
line Jas soon as you draw it taut on the
reel and he feels the pull on the hook,
whiz he will come out of that water and
shoot into the air dozen feet Taking a
tearing this way and that way. round and
round, and keeping your fingers busy at
the reel. Then suddenly out of the water
he comes again, throwing himself high
above water, and, describing a capricious
arc in mid-air, falls back into his element
again, quivering with excitement and
pain and sparkling with spray. Finding
that these tactics tail to release him from
the hook, the chances are that he may
take it into his head to seek another part
OF the river, and down the stream he goes
like race horse.
''He may lead you mile or two miles,
keeping your attendants busy at the oars
and yourself on the alert for any sudden
change in his man9uvreing. 1t may be
that after the chase he will have recourse
to his former tactics, and give you lively
struggle for a half hour or SO. BY and by,
however, discouraged and exhausted, be
will give up absolutely and allow himself
to be reeled in and gated. The whole
fight has been science and skill against
cunning and strength, and the former
will win every time"