PATENT GIMP. 21 



moistened in the moutli until it is soft and can be tied without 

 cracking. Never put it in hot water, and avoid even luke-warm 

 water for the purpose, unless you are greatly pressed for time. 

 Hot water is ruinous to gut. It is always more satisfactory 

 to buy the gut in hanks and tie it, than to purchase the usual 

 three-yard casts sold by tackle-makers, as the knots in these 



Fig. 17. Knot for Loops. 

 are not always reliable. Except in the manner already described, 

 anything in the nature of a silk binding over the knots is 

 quite unnecessary. I have so far only described the typical 

 paternoster. Where large fish are expected, it may be made 

 of the stoutest salmon gut, or gut less stout used double. I 

 do not advocate twisted gut for sea fishing, as strands of it 

 are apt to break without being noticed by the angler, who, 

 believing in the strength of his tackle, bears heavily on a big 

 fish, and loses it. In fresh water twisted gut is often used 

 with advantage ; but in salt water gut quickly becomes brittle, 

 and when one strand of a piece of twisted gut breaks, the 

 remaining strands, which have also grown brittle, are, of 

 course, not strong enough to hold a big fish. If double gut 



Fig. 18. Attachment of Lines to Collars. 



is used, the strands are best laid side by side, not twisted. 

 Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell has suggested laying two gut casts 

 side by side, and twisting them. The idea seems a good one. 

 The casts should, of course, be so arranged that they do 

 not come opposite to one another. As fine as salmon-gut, and 

 as strong, is a new Patent Gimp which has been introduced 



