THE RUDD. 65 



him can you say he is thoroughly mastered. I recommend 

 fine tackle, of course ; the finer you dare use it, the greater 

 your chance of success, but it will be found a mistake to 

 try it too fine. A gut line a yard in length, slightly tapered 

 towards the hook end, of good, round, finest undrawn gut, 

 of the quality known in the trade as '' finest refina No. i," 

 stained a dark blue colour, will be found the best, and this 

 ^t line should have a small and carefully knotted loop tied 

 at each end of it, one of these loops being to fasten the silk 

 line in, and the other to loop in the length of gut on which 

 the hook itself is whipped. I recommend for various rea- 

 sons the bottom, tackle to be in two sections, the hook length 

 of gut to be separate and distinct from, the main gut line, 

 and yet capable of being joined together in an instant by 

 means of the two loops, the principal reason being that in 

 case of a breakage, which generally happens to the bottom 

 or hook length, as being the finest, a fresh hook can be put 

 on without having to change the properly-shotted main gut 

 line. I have used several different kinds of hooks in rudd 

 fishing, round bends and sneck bends ; long shanks and 

 short shanks ; and after a careful trial, I pronounce most 

 •decidedly in favour of a Crystal hook. No. 10 size (Redditch 

 scale) mth a fairly long shank, the holding power of this 

 hook being very good, in addition to which a worm or worms 

 can be threaded on with the greatest ease. The gut itself 

 on this hook should be a shade finer than the main gut line, 

 what is known as 2x drawn gut stained dark blue, being the 

 very best. It is advisable to have a few spare gut hooks 

 of this quality with you, as breakages may happen, and it 

 is alsoi advisable to have a supply of short-shanked hooks as 

 well, in case you may want to try the paste bait, as noted 

 a short time ago. 



Now I come to a point that I wish the angler to carefully 

 con, and that is : a rudd always takes a bait " slowly sinking 

 from the surface," in preference to a stationary one, or even 

 to a bait swimming down stream at one even depth. From 

 this it is obvious that a lot of heavy shot must not be in 

 close proximity to the hook. These split shot, which can 

 be three or four BB's suflficient to cock the float properly 

 (and leave about an inch of it out of the water if that float 

 F 



