276 



Rod and Tackle. 



CHAP. XX. 



from the running line every time you fresh bait, and passing the loop 

 of the snood through one loop of the trace, then to pass the whole 

 trace through the loop of the snood, and hitch on to the running line 

 again. This is a tedious operation, and time is too precious when 

 fish are taking. I have, therefore, a little knot of my own for getting 

 over this difficulty. It is a double loop, made of a single length of 

 good stout salmon gut. 



Commence by thoroughly well soaking your gut for a quarter of an 

 hour or more. Then arrange it as in Figure i, and tie a simple whip 

 knot or common knot in it, such as is commonly tied at the end of a 



whip ; a single knot, not a blood knot. 

 The gut will then be disposed as shown 

 in Figure 2. If in this stage you take 

 the trouble to see that the guts fall 

 evenly side by side, and not across 

 each other, your knot will be both 

 tighter and neater than if clumsily tied. 

 Pull the two loops, and the two ends, 

 till you get all quite taut; and then 

 cut off the ends, and you will have a 

 neat knot as in Figure 3. When neatly 

 tied and well pulled together, in well 

 soaked gut, the knot is a very neat 

 and strong one. Of course you will arrange to have a large loop 

 at one end, and a small at the other. A very little manipulation is 

 sufficient for this. 



Put the end of your trace through the small loop, and then pass the 

 big loop through the trace loop, and you have then furnished your 

 trace with a large loop of double salmon gut big enough to pass any 

 bait, and strong enough to hold any fish ; stronger, probably, than your 

 spinning trace, which is seldom made of such strong gut. 



Soaking Gut. Thoroughly soaking your gut, before tying any 

 knots in it, is a precaution inculcated in all books on angling; but 

 it is very much more important to attend to this in India than it is in 

 England, because in a tropical clime the gut is much more dry and 

 brittle, and consequently cracks more easily. But if the gut is soaked 

 in cold water till it is quite soft and limp, there is no fear. 



If your trace, your phantom, or fly collar, has been much doubled 



