42 FLY FISHING. 



yards long : indeed it is not often that you run as much as twenty 

 yards off the reel, but yet some spare line may sometimes be ne- 

 cessary, particularly if a large fish dashes determinedly off, and a 

 tree or some other impediment prevents your following him, or 

 you should chance to hook a salmon ; an event that not unfre- 

 quently occurs ; in which case a line of forty yards at least would 

 be highly desirable. As for the reel, my own unfishermanlike 

 management of it scarcely entitles me to offer an opinion. What 

 I recommend to every angler is to spare no pains to get a good 

 multiplier, which I have never yet been fortunate enough to obtain, 

 though I have possessed several reels warranted to be so. They all 

 indeed did very well at first, or when I have only met with moderate 

 sport, but it has rarely happened that I got amongst the big ones, and 

 found myself obliged to grind away more rapidly than common, than 

 the rascally rattletrap would get out of order, and plague me beyond 

 all bounds of patience, so that at length I made a resolution never to 

 use another, but to content myself with the more simple machinery of 

 a single reel, but which I must confess has its inconveniences, as 

 I am obliged when I wish to shorten my line quickly, to draw it 

 through the rings and hold it in coils in my left hand, yet I am 

 now so accustomed to it, that after I have thoroughly stretched 

 my line it runs out again freely enough, and upon the whole I 

 manage it pretty much to my satisfaction. This of course only 

 applies to trout fishing, for with salmon a multiplying reel is in- 

 dispensable. And if a reel of that kind can be obtained, and that 

 actually will stand the racket of a continued grind, when the trout 

 are rising in true earnest, I would recommend the owner by all 

 means to make what use he can of it, and esteem himself in high- 

 luck into the bargain. 



The gut bottom or foot line will also require some consideration. 

 This should be at least three yards long, and if the line is stout a 

 yard or two longer. It should be composed of links of fine round 

 gut rather finer at the lower than the upper extremity, and even 

 at this end it should not be too stout, as this instead of adding to 

 the safety of that part of the tackle, not unfrequently causes its 

 utter destruction ; for when the gut bottom is stronger than the 

 line, it naturally follows that when a heavy strain comes upon the 

 both, the weaker line must be the first to give way, and with the last 

 goes also the gut that is attached to it. The foot line must also 

 '" Vept clean, for if allowed to get furred, it looks more than twice 



