70 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



Grass or Indian Weed began to be used instead 

 of hair for the casting line proper. The first 

 mention I know is in an advertisement at the 

 beginning of the second edition of Chetham 

 (1700) : At the Sign of the Fish in Black Horse 

 A lley near Fleet Bridge liveth Will Brown who 

 maketh all sorts of Fishing-Rods and selleth 

 all sorts of Fishing Tackle : also Charles 

 Kirby's Hooks, with Worms Gentles and Flys : 

 and also the East India Weed, which is the 

 only thing for Trout Carp and Bottom Fishing. 

 It must then have been comparatively new, for 

 the advertisement goes on to say that it is 

 brittle and must be soaked in water for half 

 an hour before use; it then proves strong and 

 fine and more invisible than hair or silk. It is 

 frequently mentioned through the eighteenth 

 century until superseded by gut. I have never 

 been able to find out what it was.* One fly only 

 was used. The reel was not used in trout fish- 

 ing. It is first mentioned by Barker in 1651 

 for trolling, and by Walton in 1655 for salmon. 

 Barker gives a figure of it, incomprehensible 

 except that it fastened with a spring clip, but 

 luckily there is a picture of it in Venables 5 

 frontispiece. It appears to have been an ordin- 

 ary barrel winder, without check. Barker used 

 to have twenty-six yards of line on his reel for 

 salmon fishing and he carried a gaff and he had 

 a parchment fly book also. The trout fisher's 

 basket was exactly like ours. 



The greatest attention imaginable was paid 



*See note on page 81. 



