TROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



fections, otherwise you will have hard luck in making 

 your leaders no matter how well they are tied. 



In speaking of how to select silkworm gut, I cannot 

 do better than quote from that versatile and expert fly-fish- 

 erman, Mr. Henry P. Wells, who states as follows on page 

 103 in his great book, entitled "Fly-Rods and Fly- 

 Tackle": 



''The features to be sought are good color, a hard, wiry tex- 

 ture, roundness, even diameter from end to end and length. From 

 these are to be inferred the strength and wearing quality of the 

 gut, which are what we wish to estimate. 



"From the color we infer whether the gut is fresh or stale, its 

 probable strength in relation to its thickness, and, in part, its wear- 

 ing quality. In all these respects fresh gut is superior to old gut 

 of original equal quality. 



"The color can best be judged from the fuzzy end of the hank, 

 and should be clear and glassy, and by no means dull or yellowish. 

 The wearing quality of the gut may be judged partly by its color, 

 partly by its springiness when bent and released, and also by its 

 hardness. It should feel like wire." 



Silkworm gut can be purchased in hanks of one hun- 

 dred strands, white in color or in packages of twenty-five, 

 fifty, and one hundred strands, that have been selected for 

 grade and dyed mist color. My advice to the amateur 

 leader maker is to buy the latter-mentioned kind of gut, 

 for, in the long run, better results will be obtained, unless 

 great study and care is given to the matter of selecting the 

 white gut in hanks and the dyeing of the same. 



Even when selected gut is used it is of the utmost im- 

 portance to see that the strands are regraded for size by 



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