DISAPPOINTING DAYS.
DISAPPOINTING Days! How well we all know them, and how terribly
frequent they are. Full of ardour and keen as mustard, we anticipate
great things, only to find that another day of disappointment is to
be added to the many already recorded in our angling diary. And it is
sometimes so difficult to anticipate them; all the omens seem to be
propitious, and yet the fates are inexorable.
There are days admittedly hopeless, when the river side is only sought
for its companionship, and for the unknown possibilities of fortune;
and others that are worse than hopeless, when to try to fish for
salmon with a fly would be the height of absurdity, as, for instance,
when the river is in high spate, or so full of snow brue or ice as to
render your chances almost ridiculous. These, in a sense, are certainly
disappointing; but it is not of them that I would write, but rather of
those inexplicable days when all seems to be fairly propitious and yet
we come home "blank."
Fortunately, fishermen are not easily browbeaten by unkind fortune,
and these black letter days only serve to give a renewed zest to
the future, in anticipation of the more fortunate days that we all
confidently believe to be in store for us.
Everything seems on some occasions to go unaccountably wrong. The water
may be in order, the fish up, and yet at the end of the day you have
nothing but mishaps to record, your confident expectations have been
rudely dissipated, and you have met with a series of misfortunes.
Perhaps on starting you find that you have left your flask or your
tobacco pouch lying on your mantelpiece, and imprudently have turned
back to secure them. That circumstance alone, in the eyes of your
gillie, will prove amply sufficient to give you a "disappointing day."
You have already discounted your luck, and must not grumble at the
result. On reaching the water side you find that you have brought
with you the wrong box of flies, and only have with you the one you
had discarded overnight as containing those of a size too large.
Well, you must make the best of it, mount the least objectionable of
those at your disposal, and proceed to wade out into the stream with
half your confidence gone. You soon realise that your waders, which
had already given you warning indications of hard wear, are leaking
somewhat unpleasantly. After working your way half down the pool you
discover that your pipe is smoked out, and as you are in need of the
consoling influence of tobacco, you propose to refill it, proceeding
to knock out the ashes on the butt of your rod; in doing so the pipe
slips through your fingers and disappears in the stream at your feet.
It is impossible to recover it, so you are pipeless, and therefore
inconsolable all day.
Some disappointments are sheer ill fortune; some we bring upon
ourselves. You are, for example, casting mechanically, and therefore
badly; moreover, you are not watching your fly, nevertheless you get
a rise. You step back a yard or so, in order to be sure of getting
the length right for the next cast, and in so doing forget the slimy
green boulder that you had just negotiated on your way down. An awkward
struggle, in which you have to use the butt of your rod as a stick to
avoid an upset, does not serve to mend matters, but rather to unsteady
you the more. At any rate, you have escaped a real ducking and are
proportionately thankful.
Then, your mental balance being somewhat upset, you cast over your
rising fish; he comes up well, a good boil, but you are too anxious
and keen, and fairly pull the fly out of the fish's mouth. You have
pricked him, and you will hardly get another rise out of him. Still
there is a Will-o'-the-wisp kind of luck awaiting you, for near the
tail of the pool you get a fair head-and-tail rise, and are fast in a
good fish. He won't come up into your pool, but insists on making down,
through the broken water, into the pool below. Having guided him to the
best of your ability through the intricacies of the run, you hasten to
get ashore to get on terms with him, keeping your rod point well up.
More haste, less speed. The fact of your mental balance being upset
reacts upon your bodily balance, and you catch the toe of your brogue
on a submerged rock whilst working your way ashore, and this time you
go a real "howler." Thoroughly wet, with a big chunk cut out of your
wrist in your fall, you pick yourself up to find that you have broken
your favourite rod point. Disconsolately you begin to reel up, the
broken top meanwhile floating on your line in the water.
Still a gleam of luck: the fish is on, and, moreover, is complacently
careering round the head of the new pool. Thoroughly aroused, you take
the greatest care in getting on to terms with him again. Your rod has
now a somewhat quaint appearance, like a dismasted yacht. Half the
play of it is gone, and the top swirls about on the water in a most
disconcerting manner. With set teeth, you grimly determine that, come
what may, you will land that salmon. And you meet with some measure of
reward, for after a somewhat prolonged duel, he begins to flop about on
the surface, and to show unmistakable signs of having had enough of it.
With the greatest care you select the best spot for gaffing him, and
successfully get the gaff free from your shoulder. Your now stiff and
stodgy rod is, however, not best suited for bringing him in to the
gaff. It is some little time before you get anything, like a fair
chance. Then, with the rod in your left hand, your trusty gaff in
the right, he is led in, down stream, and he flops about. The hold,
alas, has been somewhat worn, and, just as you are making ready for
your stroke, the fish makes one more roll and surge and is free. A
wild scrape with the gaff only scores a scale or two from his side,
and, slowly gliding out of sight into the deep water, he disappears
for ever. You feel that you have only yourself to thank for such a
_dénouement_, but that is scant consolation.
[Illustration: THE FALL'S POOL.]
Damp and annoyed, you sit yourself down by the river side to try to
make matters straight. Where is that waxed silk? At home, of course.
So you have to content yourself with sacrificing a good length of the
taper of your line in order to make a temporary splice.
Taking all things into consideration, your efforts to rig up a jury top
are reasonably successful, and it might yet kill a fish. If only you
had a pipe to console yourself with, things might look brighter and
better; but the loss of your pipe is an undeniably severe one. The pool
that you are now fishing has a shelving stone bank on your side, the
deep water being opposite to you. It is ideal water to fish, as the fly
works out of the heavy stream into the shallowing water on your side.
The wading, moreover, is easy, and the pool a long one, so that there
is every probability of your being able to yet retrieve your fortunes,
and of being able to account for a heavy fish before you have done with
it.
Still keeping mounted the fly that, contrary to your expectations,
had already deluded the former fish, you wade out and recommence
operations. The cast, however, demands a certain length of line to
cover the fish, and your rod is hardly the man it was; the breeze has
increased a good deal, and is directly behind you; still, you manage to
cover the water fairly well, and are beginning to get on better terms
with yourself. A few yards down there is a good rise and a welcome
heavy "rugg." The fly, however, comes away, and you are left lamenting.
The long pool is steadily fished down, and some hundred yards or so
lower you get another bold and confident rise. You strike, and the fly
again comes back. Reeling up, sadly you wade ashore, and, on examining
your fly, find the barb gone.
In all probability it was broken at the head of the pool on the
shelving bank behind you, the strong wind at your back and the long
cast with a weak rod having brought about the misfortune. Why, in the
name of goodness, had you not examined the fly when it came back after
your last rise? No doubt but that the barb had gone long before that.
Mentally cursing your carelessness, objurgating Dame Fortune, and
longing for the companionship of a pipe, there is nothing to be done
but to mount another fly and to fish, albeit somewhat mechanically, the
next stretch of water. But there is now no response. That inexplicable
co-relation between the temperature of the air and the water that seems
to cause salmon to rise has undergone some modification, the breeze has
dropped, and the mists are beginning to rise. Do what you will, not a
fish will move.
Had your luck been in the ascendant, or had you paid more respect to
the superstitions of your attendant gillie, things might have been
so different. You have had three good chances, each of which, under
normal circumstances, might have been fairly expected to score, and
that with flies that, in your judgment, were a size too large. Fate had
determined that you were to have a "disappointing day," and you cannot
say that you have not scored one.
In September, 1902, having received an invitation from an old friend to
fish one of the upper beats of the Spean, I journeyed up North, full of
eagerness. I had long wished to try that river. My host had informed me
that that river was low, but that everything pointed to broken weather
and rain; and though this forecast was true as regards some portions of
Great Britain, the change never came during the fortnight that I spent
on Spean side, that bonnie river getting finer and finer day by day,
until at last it became a mere shadow of its former self. At the time
of my arrival everything looked promising. Heavy clouds were gathering,
and it looked as if the promised rainfall could not be long delayed.
At the lodge I found, besides my host, another angler whom I am also
privileged to call an old friend, and in such company I knew that,
whether sport were good or no, we should at least have a jolly time.
That evening we discussed flies and angling details as only fishermen
can, and with a last look out of the window at the murky sky, and a tap
to my barometer as I turned in somewhat early, looking forward to the
morrow with the keenest anticipation.
Early astir next morning, I drew up my blinds to find an almost
cloudless sky and a bright sun. All the evening promise had been
dissipated, and the rain-laden clouds had wandered out to sea to
discharge their precious stores where least required. The river, though
small, was, nevertheless, still fishable, and there were plenty of
salmon up. At the lowest pool on the beat I put up my rod and fixed
up the local "medicine"--a Thunder and Lightning--and, wading out,
fished the pool down carefully, without result. My host then fished it,
also blank. Several fish had shown at the tail, but we could not get a
rise out of them. Then we wandered up the beat, trying all the likely
pools in turn. In the mill pool I managed to get into a small salmon,
about 7 lb. in weight, and duly got him out; otherwise our efforts
were entirely unrewarded. It was a great thing to learn the pools, and
to know where it was safe to wade, etc., and so I felt that the day
was not a lost one as far as I was concerned, though of course less
interesting to my friend S. and to my host. As we came home the clouds
again began to gather, to lure us, Will-o'-the-wisp-like, on to further
baseless hope, as the following bright, hot morning amply testified.
And so the days wore on, rocks gradually appearing where water had
flowed before, shallows becoming stony strands, and the fish more
pool-locked than ever. Finer grew the tackle used, smaller the flies.
We were really learning the geography of the bed of the river to some
weariness. After a few days S. gave up trying for the salmon, and
contented himself with trout waders and a trout rod as being more
productive of amusement. Being, however, of a more dogged temperament,
I stuck to the salmon, fishing with the smallest flies I could get,
and almost trout gut. By means of these allurements I did succeed in
amusing myself, rising and hooking quite a respectable number of fish,
but somehow or other I never could get a good hold of them; all were
lightly hooked, and got off in playing or eventually broke me. One fish
I was particularly annoyed with; he was a heavy one, well over 20 lb.,
and might have been 30 lb. I had often seen him showing in the pool at
the end of the Red Bank. This formed really the head of the Mill Pool,
but was now cut off from the main part of the Mill Pool by a daily
lowering shallow some 1 ft. to 18 in. deep, through which sharp-cutting
rocks jutted at intervals. In mid-stream quite a highish bank of stones
was now disclosed, and on our side had quite cut off the flow of water
and formed a large backwater. The pool was fishable with a short line,
and the high, rocky bank behind formed a good shelter whilst working
down the very rough bank side. About four o'clock one afternoon I saw
my friend show twice in the head of the pool, and determined to give
him another trial with the little Popham that had already risen fish.
He took it grandly, with a head-and-tail rise, right up in the roughish
water in the neck, and then proceeded to sail round the diminished
proportions of the deep hole. He played very heavily, but did not
jigger or show any signs of being lightly hooked. After some time of
this kind of work, which was taking but little out of him, my light
cast forbidding any heroic measures on my part, I began to wonder how
I could manage to kill him. He could have got up into the pool above,
where it would have been an easier matter to deal with him, but no arts
of mine could induce him up stream. I thought that if I could get him
down into the backwater I could more readily manage to play and kill
him, so I walked him steadily down stream, and he followed for some
distance like a lamb. Suddenly, however, he made up his mind for a run,
or, realising the object of my manoeuvre, off he went, churning his
way across the wide shallow, his back fin almost showing, bound for
the main stream on the other side. Sixty yards of line were soon gone,
then seventy, then eighty, and, as I could not follow, it was merely
a question of when he would break me, when apparently he changed his
mind, turned clean round and ran back through the shallow towards me
for all he was worth. Holding the rod as high as I could to prevent
my line being cut by the half-submerged, jagged rocks, and paying in
line as hard as I could at the same time, I got him within twenty
yards of the spot where he was hooked, the little Popham holding well,
and with no slack line. Just as my gillie and I were congratulating
ourselves that we had him now, up came the point of my rod, and he was
gone. The light cast had been terribly frayed by his mad rush across
the shallow water, and he retained my Popham and left me lamenting. It
certainly was hard lines, when all the dangers of the run had been so
successfully overcome and hooked fish were so scarce.
It is useless, however, to repine in such circumstances, and after all,
in a very dead time, he had given me a good twenty minutes to half an
hour of sport. My friend S. came up just as we parted company, and
condoled with me. That same afternoon my host managed to land a 21 lb.
fish on a stouter tackle, and he was not very red--the fish I mean,
not my host!--although he must have been up some time.
The same thing went on all the next week. A few desultory showers did
not help us much, and at the end of a fortnight's solid work I could
only show two small salmon of 7 lb. apiece, my host one of 21 lb., and
S., who had confined his attention to the trout after the first few
days, had not landed any fish. And so it is--too often, alas!--that
our hopes are doomed to disappointment. There were the fish, plenty
of them; but also there were the gradually dwindling river and the
expanding river bed. Nothing was wanting save a kindly and copious fall
of rain--so much needed by three ardent anglers--rain that was falling
only too copiously down South, whilst the normally wet North-West coast
of Scotland was languishing for want of it.
A dear fishing friend of mine took a rod for February one year, and
lived at Brawl Castle for the month at the rate of about £1 per day.
During the whole month the river and even Loch More were ice-bound, and
his rods reposed in the box. The trip must have cost him the best part
of £100. So our Spean experience was as nothing to his.
And these disappointments make an admirable foil for those happy,
though not too frequent, times when, for a wonder, river, fish, and
weather are all we could desire them to be. How little we should value
them were they of constant recurrence. So, consoling ourselves with
these reflections, we enjoy to the full the pleasure of the company of
kindred spirits, tie flies, grease lines, and fettle up rods generally,
yarn away our fishermen's tales, drink nightly the toast of "Rain, and
lots of it," and retire at night, confident, despite all, of the morrow.
Perchance your next holiday up North you may find your pet river in
sullen, heavy flood, the skies pouring down upon the devoted hills a
constant deluge. Each day you mark on the river bank the water level,
only to find your mark submerged the next day. Supposing even it were
to stop now. Could the river fine down sufficiently before the end of
your stay to enable you to have a glimmering hope of a fish? It is
possible, but doubtful. Next day's deluge settles the matter, and you
are done. But still, it is a poor heart that never rejoices. Next
time, after such a run of bad luck, you are bound to have an innings.
Men who have the instincts of sportsmen and who deserve the name have
a marvellous power of rising superior to adverse circumstances, and
consequently get their reward, whilst the dead-hearted give it up
as a bad job. Come good or bad luck, let your heart be in the right
place. You will be able to extract from either much enjoyment and some
experience, and will be just as keen to take the luck that comes the
very next opportunity you get of testing it.
[Illustration]