24 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 



which a trolling line should possess, and every conceiv- 

 able variety of material has been at one time or other 

 recommended for its composition, from " sheep and cat- 

 gut," to " silver and silk twisted." Even amongst more 

 modern authorities some peculiar divergencies are ob- 

 servable. Palmer Hackle (Robert Blakey), for instance, 

 recommends horsehair, pur ct simple ; — a recipe which 

 I cannot think likely to prove very successful, as it is 

 within the experience of most troUers that, even with 

 the addition of a proportion of silk, twenty yards of 

 ordinary fly-line cannot be induced to run out through 

 the rings of a jack rod. A few lines further on, however, 

 Mr. Blakey explains that " there are other sorts kept by 

 the tackle-shops, but — he has never tried them ;" and, 

 therefore, he "will back a hair-line against them all at a 

 venture." The bare material for a trolling line of 

 genuine horsehair 80 yards long, would cost from 25s. 

 to 30s. 



Three qualifications are essential to a trolling line : 

 strength ; a certain amount of stiffening ; and impervi- 

 ousness to water, without which no line can be prevented 

 from swelling and knotting into tangles when wet and 

 uncoiled from the reel. And here it may be at once ad- 

 mitted that these conditions are all very fairly fulfilled 

 by the ordinary 8-plait dressed-silk trolling lines sup- 

 plied by the tackle makers. Some discussion has re- 

 cently taken place as to the merits of catechu, india- 

 rubber, and other waterproof dressings, especially in 



