HOOKS. 25 



useless. There are various reasons why the fly gives way first 

 at this place. First of all he that does not allow sufficient 

 time on the back cast will whip off the fly at every lick he 

 makes, so we will not consider his case. In tying a fly it is 

 finished at the head, the last turns of the silk are exposed and 

 must be touched with shellac, and in doing this, although care 

 is exercised, it sometimes happens that shellac gets on the gut. 

 This acts like a waterproof coating, and at that particular point 

 the gut will be hard and stiff after the balance of the gut length 

 is softened from being in the water. An otherwise careful 

 angler will at times, when a trout strikes short, in his desire to 

 get his flies back on the water quickly, repeat his cast too 

 rapidly. In putting a new fly on a cast, time may not be given 

 for the gut to soak and soften before casting it. The two or 

 three flies of a cast may have gut lengths of different thick- 

 nesses, and a back cast that will do no injury to the thin gut 

 will at the same time crack the thicker gut, for be it known 

 drawn gut will stand the grief of poor back casting that will 

 ruin gut of twice or thrice its thickness. There are reasons 

 enough why flies tied to gut break at the end of the shank ! 

 but the eyed hook makes them all impotent. Again we quote 

 from Mr. Halford's " Floating Flies," &c. 



' " Flies dressed on eyed hooks float better and with less 

 drying than those constructed on the old system. Another, 

 and, in my opinion, paramount benefit is, that at the very 

 earliesc symptom of weakness at the point of juncture of the 

 head of the fly and gut (the point at which maximum wear 

 and tear take place), it is only necessary in the case of the 

 eyed fly to break it off and tie on afresh, sacrificing at most a 

 couple of inches of the fine end of the cast, while in the case 

 of the hook on gut, the fly has become absolutely useless and 

 beyond repair. It must also be remembered that with eyed 

 hooks the angler can use gut as coarse or as fine as he may 

 fancy for the particular day, while with flies on gut he would 

 require to have each pattern dressed on two or three different 

 thicknesses." 



