Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-03

And How They Fight After They Take It
The Sulker's Tactics.

From the New YORK sun.
"a salmon doesn't take the iy as a trout does
and it never rises to one while it is passing up
or down a stream" said an experienced angler
for this king of fish. st is only while the
salmon is lying at rest in pools, the reposing
water at the foot of some swift rapid, or the
silent starting place of such a rapid, that il
Will respond to the fishermsns cast. Salmon
may be moving along by the thousand in the
deep stretches of stream that extend perhaps
for a mile between rapids. but the angler might
drop his flies above them for a year. il ii were
possible, without ever being rewarded by a
single rise. The pool is the place to whip and
the time early morning or late in the afternoon
If the epicurean denizen of the pool is SO in
clined there lie sport ahead for the angler He
drops his fly lightly on the water and the sal
mon in the humor will rise to it and seize it at
once.
Then the excitement begins. 1t is divided
between the fish and the fisherman. The more
the salmon tries to get out of trouble the deeper
he gets the angler in. The fish no sooner feels
the hook in his jaw than he seems to realize
tina: he has got TO get II out as soon as possible
or il will be bad for him. Then things begin
TO boil. The first thing the fisherman knows a
hundred feet of line have spun IRON his reel
and he thinks he is in for a long chase down
stream. when suddenly the salmon doubles
and dashes straight back toward the boat
Then there is work for the angler if he expects
TO reel in the slack Of the line and get it taut
again in good time No sooner is the line taut
once more than the salmon feels its ten
sion through the hook in his Jaw. and the
chances are that he will shoot upward and out
of the water his entire length and more. TAX
ing his header. he dashes madly down into the
depths again. tearing this way and that way.
darting around and around, and making lively
work for the fisherman and the handler of his
boat. After an exciting series of maaeuvers
such az this. the mad fish may take il into his
head to start down stream like a steam engine.
putting the guide at his best TO keep tine boat
along with him. The salmon may lead chase
of mile in this way. then stop suddenly and
resume its leapiug and doubling tactics. The
fight may last an hour or more, and il the
angler is skillful and cool, and his guide or
gaffman dex:erous and watchful, the contest
should have but one ending, and eventually the
glittering prize will be stretched at the bottom
of the canoe. If the angler is not skillful and
cool, the fight will also have but one ending
The glittering prize will not be stretched on
the bottom OF the canoe, but in very short
time will be at the bottom of his pool congrat-
ulating himself that his foeman was not worthy
of his steel
The one thing in fight with a salmon that
the fisherman most fears and breads is the liza
bility of the fish to sulk. sulker is al
ways a big fish. He will not show fight
ouCc, uut sluh 70 pOttom anu ne
there. Whenever he does make up his mind to
fight the fisherman knows that the fight will be a
good one. But the sulkiug fish may lie for
half a day or more, despite ali the anglers ef-
forts to start him. No salmon fisherman can
with honor retreat from a fish he has once
hooked, and he must possess his soul in pa
thence, and wait until the sulker concludes to
open the performance. if he has to sit all night
1t is on record that in 1888 in the Marguerite ri
Yer. Canada. n fisherman hooked u salmon at about
z o'clock in the morning. 1t a sulker and
it lay IN the dumps until clock in the after
noon. Then the big fish suddenly started down
stream and at railroad speed for mile
without stopping. Then he quit running and
fought the angler, by all the salmons known
tactics up and down and across the river, for
two mortal hours without a moments rest, be-
fore he gave up and submitted TO the gaf. The
fisherman was almost as nearly played out as
the salmon when the end came. and would
have been compelled TO hand the old war horse
over to some one else to finish il the fight had
lasted many minutes longer. That salmon
weighed forty pounds-the largest killed in thai
water.