The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-06-12
heARlY Broke HIS nEARr.
The Experiences OF n Lonely Fisherihan
on Dull Day.


Friday was the luckless day of my
own failure and broken heart. says
Andrew Lang in Good Words. The
water was still very heavy and turbid.
frantic wind was lashing the woods.
heaps of dead leaves fioated down. and
several sheaves of corn were drifted on
the current. The long boat pool at
Yair, however, is sheltered by wooded
banks. and it was possible enough to
cast, in spite of the winds fury. We
had driven from place about five
miles distant, and we had not driven
three hundred yards before l remem-
bered that we had forgotten the land
ingnet,
seem worth while to go back for this
indispensable implement We reached
the waterside, and found that the trout
were feeding below the pendant
branches of the trees and in the quiet.
deep eddies of the long boat pool. One
can not see rising trout without cast.
ing over them in preference to labor
ing after salmon so put up a small
rod and diverted myself from the bank.
1t was to little purpose. Tweed trout
are now grown very shy and capricious;
even n dry fly failed to do any execu.
tion worth mentioning. Conscience
by kind hosts to fish for salmon, not to
neglect my orders.
The armor-the ponderous gear OF
the fisher-was put on with the enorm-
Gus boots, aud the gigantic rod was
equipped. Then came the beginning
of sorrows. We had left the books OF
salmon Hies comfortbly reposing al
home. We had also forgotten the
whisky flask. Everything. in fact, ex-
cept cigarettes. had been left behind.
Unluckily, not quite everything; had
a trout hy-book. and therein lay just
one large salmon fly. not Tweed fly.
but lure that is used on the beautiful
but hopeless waters of the distant
Ken. in Galloway. 1t had brown
wings. a dark body. and a piece OF
jungle-cock feather. and it was fastened
10 II sca-trout caSting-line- Now, il
/ had possessed no salmon flies at all
must either have sent back for some OF
gone on innocently dallying with
trout.
But this one wretched fly lured me to
my ruin. | saw that the casting-line
had link which seemed rather twist.
ed l tried it; but. in the spirit of Don
Quixote with his helmet, / did not try
it hard. / waded into the easiest-look-
ing part of the pool just above 1, huge
tree that dropped its boughs to the
water. and began casting, mere from a
sense of duty. l had not cast Il dozen
times before there was Il heavy, slow
plunge in the stream. and a glimpse oi
purple and azure.
s.He will not come again" l said.
when there was n long. heavy drag al
the line, followed by a shrieking of the
reel, as in William Blacks novels. But
he soon came back. while one took in
line. and discussed his probable size
with the trout-iisher opposite. His
size. indeedi Nobody knows what il
was, for when he had come up to the
point whence he had started he began
policy of short tugs-not jiggering.
as it is called. but plunging with all his
weight on the line. 1 had clean for
gotten the slimnrss of the tackle. aud.
as he was clearly well hooked held him
perharps too hard. Only very raw
beginner likes to take hours over land
ing fish. Perhaps l held him too
tight; at all events. after a furious
plunge, back came the line; the cast.
ing-line had snapped at the top link.
Presently | had another chance, but
it all ended just rs disastrously. had
borrowed an old hv from Il farmhouse
this time There was u slight pull,
such as trout gives in mid~lrean un-
der water | raised the point. and
again the reel sang aloud and gleeful-
" as the salmon rushed down the
stream farther and faster thau the first.
1t is very pleasant think to hook Il
salmon when you are all alone. .as | was
then-alone with Yourself and he God.
dess of Fishing. The salmon. just like
the other, now come back. aud InStaut-
ly began the old tactics of heavy plung-
ing tugs. But | knew the gut was
sound this time. ii d as I fancied he
had risen to the sniggler ! had no
anxiety about the tackle holding. One
more plunge. and back came the line
as before. He was off. One could
have sat down and gnawed tie reel
What had gone wrong? Why. the
brute had taken the old fly and had
snapped the loop that attaches the gut