Knot for gut-loop. 



Fish and Fishing 



knot, to join together broken gut, to make a 

 proper attachment of drop fly to casting line, and 



to connect the casting gut to reel line. 

 Knots -^^^ ^^^^ latter I have never known the 



method that I use to fail, and it is the 

 easiest to do, and undo, being simply a common 

 bow knot tied to the loop, commonly called 

 tiller-hitch or helm-knot. 

 Before tying, gut should 

 always be well soaked in 

 tepid water, as it frays 

 and cracks if dry. De- 

 cidedly the best, as well 

 as the simplest knot, 

 and one that is 

 equally applicable 

 to the finest as well 

 as the strongest gut, 

 is what is known 

 as the single and 

 double fisherman's 

 knot. Then there is 

 the buffer knot for salmon gut, the half-hitch jam 

 knot and a single and double slipknot attachment 

 to eyed hooks. The tyro can study the plates on 

 knots, then by practising them can learn to tie each 

 readily and properly. Sometimes the eyes are 

 not of the same size; if too large for the gut the 

 fly is liable to slip down out of place. In 

 other words, it does not firmly stand out from the 

 gut; in that case it should be tied double. If the 

 eye is too small for the gut to go through, then 

 2G0 



Half-hitch jam knot. 



Completed. 



