Salmon are never taken in fresh water with any food in their stomachs; they are reported not to eat their young, and do not apparently feed on flies. The fry feed almost entirely on flies, and I have seen them pick off one after another as skillfully as a trout; but I have never distinctly seen a salmon take a natural fly. When they spring out of water, it is in play, and at such times, contrary to the rule with trout, casting over them will be in vain, they will not rise. Moreover, our flies do not in the least resemble the natural flies of the rivers, which are of a dull green, and the salmon rivers afford very few flies at best. Observe me, I do not refer to mosquitoes or black gnats, at neither of which would gentlemanly fish deign to look. My theory, therefore, is, that salmon do not feed during the spawning season, but are supported by the animalculæ in the water, and have poor commons at that, as their miserable condition soon testifies. Many varieties of fish live without apparent food, often with the additional disadvantage of infrequent change of water, as goldfish in a globe.
When salmon first arrive in the harbors, they coast along the shore, and are then taken in nets, which are required by law to have a mesh too large to capture grilse; later, they leave the warm shallows, and follow the cooler channel beyond the nets, which are only permitted to extend a certain distance. The tide-water fishing is therefore practically over by the 1st of August. Net fishing above the salt water is forbidden, or at least subject to the same restrictions, which, if they were enforced, would almost put an end to it; but, discreditable as it may seem, and short-sighted as such conduct unquestionably is, this law is totally disregarded in many rivers, where of course the fish are rapidly diminishing. They spawn over gravelly flats and pools, covering up the ova after impregnation, and then descend slowly, greatly emaciated, ugly and woe-begone, to the sea. At such times, although they will still take the fly, they are unfit to eat, and while they notwithstanding frequently fall a victim to the cruel spear of the murderous savage, no true angler nor honest man will harm them.