152 Smaller Fly Tah Chapt. XL 



It is wry easily done by making the loop C. and doubling the bit 

 B. through it. The line has not to be taken off the rod for the 

 purpose, or the ends passed through at all. It is done in a couple 

 of seconds by two turns. Having done this, and taking can- that 

 your gut is thoroughly soft from soaking, so that you may be sure 

 it will not crack in knotting, pull A. and B. so that loop C. becomes 

 a tight knot, Put your drop fly, with a simple knot at the end, 

 through the loop I)., and then pull E. till 1>. also is absorbed into 

 a tight knot. Then pull your drop fly close up to its own knot, 

 and you are ready for action. 



What 1 consider the advantages of this knot are, that it is tied 

 as quickly, it' not more quickly, than any other ; is as neat as the 

 neatest of them; can be tied in any part of the collar you like, 

 so that you can have your drop fly at the precise distance you 

 fancy from the tail fly ; and if a breakage or any thing has some- 

 what curtailed that distance, you can hit it off again to a nicety. 

 This is no small point to my fancy, for it makes one unhappy to 

 have the drops crowded together. To move your first drop a length 

 further up will, perhaps, bring it too near the other drop, whei 

 you had rather it werenot qwite so near the tail fly. This is the 

 dilemma in which you are placed, if you are dependent on the 

 knots at the joins, whereas by my plan you can locate your drop 

 fly just where you have a mind, to an inch. Again it is superior 

 I think t< other knots in the ease with which you can remove your 

 fly. Pull the end A. and the drop, and the knot will open, with a 

 little aid of the nails on the knot, Or if you are not handy at 

 this work, or will not be troubled, nothing is easier than to nip 

 the fly off close up to the gut. You lose next to nothing of the 

 length of the drop thereby; you lose considerably less than you 

 do when nipping off one of Francis Francis' drops. As soon as the 

 drop is removed, the whole knot easily straightens, and a fresh 

 knot is tied, for a fresh drop in a fresh place, an inch or so higher 

 or lower. 



I have said be careful in tying the knot that the end !•'.. is the 

 end nearest to the rod ; the reason is obvious. The knot is a .dip 

 knot, and therefore a heavy fish on the drop might open it, if it 

 were not so placed thai the more the fish pulls, the more he 

 tightens "the knot. The end that tightens up the loop 11. and 

 keeps the knot at the head of the drop from coming through that 



