126 



KINKS OF ALL KINDS 



to the strength of your line, or 

 enable you to use a lighter line 

 than formerly, with a consequent 

 saving of expense and gain in 

 ease of casting. 



If you want to know why, make 

 this experiment. 



Fasten your favorite line to a 

 Cooper snap and hook it on a 

 spring scale. Take two or three 

 turns in the line a foot or so away 

 and pull steadily. The line will 

 break at about the rated test. 

 Twelve tests on a' new 8-pound 

 No. 6 line will give an average 

 of about 8^4 pounds. 



Now make a loop as advised 

 above (^ime, one minute) and re- 

 peat the experiment. The scale 

 will show 7^ 8 &/2 whoops ! 

 9 whee! 9^ what do you know 

 about that? 10 well, I'll be 

 darned, 10^2 oh, she breaks, 

 somewhere between 10>2 and 11 

 pounds. Twelve tests on the same 

 new line will average about 10^ 

 pounds. 



The interesting point in these 

 experiments is that in the first the 

 line invariably breaks at the knot. 

 The tension at which it breaks 

 has a range of a pound, owing 

 to differences in applying the 

 strain, but the break is always 

 at the knot. In the second test, 

 however, the break occurs at no 

 well-defined spot. Sometimes it 

 is near the loop, sometimes near 

 the other end. 



A moment's thought gives the 

 reason. Just as a rod breaks at 

 the ferrule, because of the ab- 

 sence of elasticity, so the line 



breaks at the knot, where it is 

 bound. Making a waxed loop, in- 

 stead of a knot, retains the elas- 

 ticity of the line to a certain ex- 

 tent, and compensates for what is 

 lost by doubling the line. One- 

 piece rods and serrated ferrules, 

 though expensive, justify them- 

 selves by adding elasticity, abolish- 

 ing the knot in the line does the 

 same thing. A tight knot puts 

 two or three pounds strain on 

 the line at least. The pull of 

 the fish soon adds enough to 

 break the line. Relieve every part 

 of the line of artificial strain, and 

 you have two or three pounds 

 more for the fish. And two or 

 three pounds is the difference be- 

 tween the fish you've been catch- 

 ing and the ones that got away. 



SAVING SNAGGED BAITS 



BY JOHN T. MITCHELL 

 Since acquiring the knowledge 

 from an old bait-caster, I have 

 never gone out without a consid- 

 erable length of heavy cord 

 (preferably chalk line) in the bag 

 I carry over my shoulder while 

 casting. A flat rock tied to the 

 end of the heavy line has saved 

 many an expensive plug, which 

 otherwise would be dangling from 

 an inaccessible branch or snag. 



PIG TAILS FOR BASS 



BY A. H. STERN 



Here is a kink for bass fishing 

 I was going to send you some 

 time ago, but it slipped my mind 



