Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-10-06
FLY FISHING FOR SALMON.
Princely Sport for Anglers Among Twen
ty-fve Founders of Gamiest Kind.

ty-ive Founders of Gamiest Kind.
A correspondent writing to an Eastern
journal, from Dalhousie, New Brunswick,
thus speaks of salmon fishing on the
R~estigouche river, from which place the
salmon for the New York markets were
supplied, prior to the shipments in refriger-
ator cars from this coast:
Salmon fishing chiefly distinguishes the
~Restigouche country so far as the outside
world is concerned. A two-handled rod
of green heart joints spliced together, if
made in New Brunswick, a heavy reel hold
ing 100 yards of silk line, a leader or cast
line of gut, double or single, a fly and a
birch-bark canoe padded by two men,
form the anglers equipment. Stay one
thing more-permission TO fish-is neces-
sary for salmon waters are as carefully
mapped out and guarded against
trespass as valuable real estate.
Formerly the Government claimed the
| waters, and leased them, regardless of
the riparian owners, until the latter obtain
ed their rights in the Courts. Now some ang-
lers purchase the land along rivers, as has
been done by the Restigouche Club others
lease the water from farmers from year to
year; and others pay a daily fee to the
owners of pools for the privilege of fishing.
The river, which has a steep descent, con-
sists of pools, in which the water may be
twenty feet deep or more, separated by
shallow rapids. On the latter, on g~ravelly
bars, the salmon lie at night. and there the
poachers were wont TO seek them with
torch and spear before the river was so
closely patrolled by fish wardens as at
present. At daybreak the fish are back in
the pools, and thither the angler comes,
anchoring his canoe below the rapids and
whipping the water on every side in
gradually heightened casts. A swirl, q
heavy tug, answered by the scream of the
reel. and a contest begins which
may last an hour. Up comes the
anchor, and the canoe is padded after the
maddened fish. Now the salmon breaks
water, leaping three feet in the air, and fall
ing with a splash that wakes the echoes.
Again there comes a wild rush, which ends
only in the pool below. Outwardly calm
through all the excitement of the battle,
the angler holds his rod firmly, point
well up, that he may bring all the
strain possible 10 bear, and reels in
line whenever he an, keeping every
thing taut and steady, whether the fish be
sulking at the bottom, viciously worrying
the hook, or cleaving the water with the
swiftness of seemingly undated powers.
At last the struggles grow weaker, and
the canoemen choose a favorable beach
for landing the fish. The angler
steps out cautiously, and guides his
salmon into shallow water n within
reach of the fatal gaff. There is no more
thrilling sport for the angler, none likelier
to stir the blood of those who denounce
angling as miscalled 'the gentle craft" 1t
is an embodiment of nerve and muscle and
cunning, as well as of beauty, with which
t e angler deals who holds 3 twenty-five
pound salmon by delicate strands of silk
and gut. The fight is a fair me-. The
stirring sight of a salmon curving through
the air, the silvery body writhing and glis-
tening in the sunlight, will overcome the
most rigid scruples and arouse the most in
different spectator. Surely this is better
han the miserable, lingering death by
~strangulation which the salmon meets
with in the nets.