14 GUT CARE AS TO TACKLE. [PART I. 



it scarcely alarms Trout more than gut, if it do 

 so at all. The very fine gimp should however be 

 always tested before it is used, as the silk within 

 it is apt to be faulty and give. The same remark 

 indeed applies to all kinds of tackle, be it line, 

 single gut, treble gut, or gimp. Remember that 

 when a break occurs it is generally to the best 

 fish. Treble gut is scarcely to be more relied 

 on than single ; the fact being that all the weak 

 bad gut is worked up, and looks well enough so. 

 As an instance, whilst spinning on the Garry, 

 I got my hooks fast the other side of a deep black 

 pool, and, not caring to swim for it, deliberately 

 pulled till something broke. My trace being of 

 single gut, the shot fastened on treble gut, and 

 having gimp next the hooks, I was curious to see 

 which the something would be. It was the treble 

 gut, possibly worn by the rubbing of the shot. 



In this, as in all other kinds of fishing, it is 

 impossible, consistently with the requisite amount 

 of strength, to have your tackle too fine : perhaps 

 in no other is it so essential to have the two 

 qualities combined. There are few tackle-makers 

 in London who know much about this branch of 

 their art. Gould, of 268, Oxford-street, (whom I 

 have also pleasure in recommending as a careful 



