CHAPTER XIV. 



MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF OUTFIT. CONCLUSION. 



IN this concluding chapter it remains for me to refer to such of the para- 

 phernalia of the angler's outfit as may not have hitherto received more 

 than cursory mention. All along I have insisted that minute care should 

 be exercised in the choice and preparation of all his appointments, and 

 my remarks, requiring possibly at the hands of the initiated some modi- 

 fication or addition, will be received, therefore, in the spirit in which 

 they are proffered, viz., as an endeavour to leave nothing worthy of notice 

 in the volume unnoticed. 



I will commence with the landing net, than which there is probably no 

 more important appurtenance of the fisherman's outfit. The common 

 fault of all landing nets is their limited size. They are rarely, unless 

 specially ordered or selected, offered for sale of greater dimensions across 

 the net iron than from a foot to eighteen inches. The result is that when 

 a fish of greater length than the width of the net is desired to be 

 landed an endeavour is made to get his head in it first. The hooks, very 

 likely, in such case get entangled, and the fish, withdrawing his body 

 by means of a powerful flap of the tail, backs out, leaving the would-be 

 captor minus his quarry, and of some of his hook-barbs. Now, if the 

 net had been wide enough to be brought up behind the fish, and 

 receive it when its bent tail favoured such a reception, the danger would 

 be done away with, and, no matter how the fish subsequently endeavoured 

 to back out of his untoward pickle, there was the net to receive him. I 

 therefore, as the outcome of this piece of experience, common at least to 

 every jack fisher, advise a net iron, when pike or trout fishing, of at 

 least 2ft. across. 



If made of the ordinary iron net wire, the loop will not sustain the 

 weight of a large fish, the wire being much too slight of gauge. The 

 net iron, therefore, ought to be beaten taperingly, that is, thickest where 



