18 ANGLING FOR COARSE FISH. 



line takes months to dry, but it dries soft, and does not 

 "knuckle," i.e., crack. It is very necessary to have a soft 

 dressing for lines intended to be used in bottom fishing. The 

 very best dressing is simply raw linseed oil, but it takes such a 

 long time to dry that it is rarely used ; next best is boiled 

 linseed oil. The line is soaked for a week in the oil (cold), 

 then stretched between two trees, well rubbed with a piece 

 of smooth leather (this gets air-bubbles out of the line), and 

 then put to soak for two more days. It is then stretched 

 between the trees, the superfluous oil wiped gently off, and 

 left to dry — an operation which will take about two months. 

 In wet weather the line must be taken indoors. When this 

 first coat is dry, the line should be put into the oil for two 

 more days, and again be put out to dry. Altogether the 

 operation takes about six months. A line so prepared will 

 last for years. If it is desirable to put on a fine polish, this 

 can be easily done, when the line is dry, by well rubbing it 

 with a piece of leather on which is a little raw linseed oil. 



It is never advisable to re-dress lines with any boiled oil 

 mixture, or at any time to soak them in hot liquids. A 

 simple method of dressing lines, new or old, is to rub them 

 briskly with a cake made of pure paraffin wax and deer 

 or mutton kidney suet in equal parts. This dressing has 

 frequently to be renewed. Twisted lines are sometimes dressed. 

 Their strength is their chief recommendation. New lines 

 should be very carefully uncoiled. I am indebted to Mr. 

 PenneU for the following capital dodge : Make a cylinder out 

 of a newspaper, and place it through the middle of the coil 

 of line. Put a stick through the paper, and rest the ends of 

 the stick on two chairs. Fasten the loose end of the line to 

 the reel, and wind away. The newspaper, of course, turns 

 on the stick, and the line comes off freely. 



Lines should always be unwound to dry after a day's 

 fishing. They can be coiled round chair-backs, or, if plaited, 

 merely left on the floor or on a table. Messrs. Farlow & Co. 

 sell a capital winder for drying lines. 



Hooks. — There are nearer a hundred than fifty different 

 bends of hooks. The ordinary round bend, of which a scale 



