Trout Flies of Devon and Cornwall, and When and How to Use Them

by G. W. Soltau

Of late, Jardine, Shaw, Scrope, and others, have investigated the subject with much success; still, many points require further elucidation, especially with reference to the causes which induce this fish to quit its more congenial quarters, and resort to the fresh water, which is evidently distasteful to them, as they decrease in weight and become much weakened after they have frequented the rivers a few months.

Some of the recent experiments, touching the young of the salmon, are very curious, and exhibit much patient and minute enquiry.

Mr. Scrope, in his very interesting work entitled “Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing,” observes, “This splendid fish leaves the sea and comes up the Tweed at every period of the year, in greater or lesser quantities, becoming more abundant in the river as the summer advances. It travels rapidly, so that those salmon which leave the sea, and go up the Tweed on the Saturday night, at twelve o’clock, (after which time no nets are worked till the sabbath is passed) are found and taken on the following Monday, near St. Boswell’s, a distance, as the river winds, of about forty miles. When the strength of the current is considered, and also the sinuous course a fish must take, in order to avoid the strong rapids, this power of swimming is most extraordinary.”

As salmon are supposed to enter a river merely for the purpose of spawning, and as that process does not take place till September, one cannot well account for their appearing in some rivers so early as February, and March, seeing that they lose in weight and condition during their continuance in fresh water. Some suppose it is to get rid of the sea louse, but this supposition must be set aside, when it is known that this insect adheres only to a portion of the newly run fish, which are in the best condition. I think it more probable they are driven from the coasts near the river by the numerous enemies they encounter there—such as porpoises, and seals, which devour them in great quantities; however this may be, they remain in the fresh water till the spawning months begin. In the cold months, they lie in deep and easy water, and as the season advances, they draw into the principal rough streams, always lying in places, where they can be least easily discovered. They prefer lying upon even rock, or behind large blocks of stone, particularly such as are of a colour similar to themselves. At every rise of the river from floods, the fish move upwards, nearer the spawning places, so that no one can reckon on preserving his particular part of the river, which is the chief reason of the universal destruction of those valuable animals. Previous to a flood, the fish frequently leap out of the water, either for the purpose of filling their air bladder, to make them more buoyant for travelling; or from excitement; or perhaps to exercise their powers of ascending heights and cataracts in the course of their journey upwards. Mr. Yarrell places their power of leaping at ten or twelve feet perpendicularly, but I do not think I ever saw one spring out of the water above five or six feet. Large fish can spring much higher than small ones; but their powers are limited or augmented, according to the depth of water they spring from. They rise rapidly from the bottom of the water to the surface, by means of rowing and sculling, as it were, with their fins and tails; and this powerful impetus bears them upwards in the air, on the same principle that a few tugs of the oar make a boat shoot onwards, after one has ceased to row.

The fish pass every practicable obstruction till they arrive at the spawning ground; some early, some late in the season. The principal spawning months are December, January, and February; but in some rivers the season is much earlier.

Salmon are led by instinct to select such places for depositing their spawn, as are least likely to be effected by the floods. These are the broad parts of the river, where the water runs swift and shallow, and has a free passage over an even bed. Here they either select an old spawning place, or form a fresh one, which is made by the female. Some fancy, that the elongation of the lower jaw in the male, which is somewhat in the form of a crook, is designed by nature to enable him to excavate the spawning trough; certainly it is difficult to divine what may be the use of this very ugly excrescence, but observation has proved that this idea is a fallacy, and that the male never assists in making the spawning place. When the female first commences making her spawning bed, she generally comes after sun set, and goes off in the morning: she works up the gravel with her snout, her head pointing against the stream, and she arranges the position of the loose gravel with her tail. When this is done, the male makes his appearance in the evenings, according to the usage of the female; he then remains close by her, on the side on which the water is deepest. When the female is in the act of emitting her ova, she turns upon her side, with her face to the male, who never moves. The female runs her snout into the gravel and forces herself under it as much as she possibly can, when an attentive observer may see the red spawn coming from her. The male, in his turn, lets his milt go over the spawn, and this process goes on for some days, more or less, according to the size of the fish, and consequent quantity of the eggs.

If a strange male interferes, the original one chases him with great fury, and in their combats, frequently inflict great injury upon each other. When the female has spawned, she sets off and leaves the place; the male remains, waiting for another female, and if none comes in twenty-four hours, he goes away in search of another spawning place.

When the spawning is finished, the fish become very lank and weak, and fall into deep easy water. Here, after a time, their strength is recruited, when as the spring advances, the strongest fish leave the depths and draw into the streams. They now move down the river in their passage to the sea. When they arrive in the deep pools, near the mouths of the rivers, they take rest for a few days; here they may be caught by anglers, as they take the fly and other baits freely. March is usually the best month for this sport—if indeed, it can be called sport, to kill an animal that is worth a mere trifle and resists but little.

Having now dispatched the salmon to the sea, it remains to explain what becomes of the spawn, and how, and when, the young fry arrive at maturity; and as there have been various doubts and contradictions on this subject, I think it more prudent to lead the reader to a consideration of the following pages, than to make a positive assertion on my own unsupported authority.

Up to a late period, it was universally thought that the spawn deposited, as described above, was matured in a brief time, and that the young fry of the winter grew to six or seven inches long; were silver in colour; and went down to the sea in this state with the first floods, early in the May of the coming spring.