8 SALMON AND TROUT. 



for the gut to work against, and its shape offers at the same 

 time special conveniences to the fly-dresser. 



The point of importance to be recollected in dressing flies 

 on these hooks, whether for salmon or trout, is that the ' neck,' 

 between the head of the fly and the loop, should be left 

 clear to receive the gut (vide preceding diagram, p. 7, left- 

 hand fig.). If this is not attended to the knot will have a 

 clumsy appearance, and the fly hang more or less crooked 

 instead of in a perfect plane with the gut. The deviation 

 from an absolute alignment between the shank of the hook 

 and the plane of the gut, was a blemish in my original pattern 

 of turn-down eye figured bottom of preceding page and the 

 same imperfection was inherent in an even greater degree in 

 the older models of hooks with eyes turned up instead of 

 down. The line, as I say, did not, and could not, occupy a plane 

 absolutely level with that of the hook-shank. 



DEFECTIVE TURN-UP EYED SALMON HOOK 

 WITH 'OVER DRAFT.' 



C, Loop or eye ; A, correct draft-line ; B, actual draft-line. 



In the turn-down eyed hook the inaccuracy was of course 

 reversed. The deflection was considerably less than that 

 above illustrated ; still it was a decided defect one of its 

 results being (in the case of my own hooks) to unduly narrow 

 the ' gape ' of the hook, and, in the turn up eyed hooks, to 

 unduly widen it. That this must inevitably be the case, a 

 glance at the last diagram will show. 



To overcome the difficulty, I tried many experiments 

 indeed, I began experimenting on my own hooks almost as 



