APPENDING OF THE DROPPERS. 99 



appended and put together, the annexed illustration 

 will render evident. 



The trail, stretcher, or lowermost fly, is here indicated 

 by the letter A ; the bobs, or droppers, by the letters 

 B and C. Betwixt A and d, where the shorter bob is 

 fastened, extend three or four threads of fine picked gut, 

 forming, in connection with the one upon which the 

 hook has been dressed, a distance varying from 3^ to 5 

 feet. The interval between the two droppers, that is 

 from dto e, is similarly occupied, but it is not necessary 

 to extend it beyond 3 feet, and should another bob-fly 

 be added higher up, the same regulation holds in 

 force. 



Many anglers have their droppers dressed upon short 

 gut, and append them to the main casting-line by loops, 

 so as to be removed or exchanged at pleasure. This, 

 the ordinary way of making up the fly-cast, answers well 

 enough with those who are more fastidious about the 

 description of flies employed by them than the fineness 

 of their tackle. But, though convenient in this respect, 

 it gives a clumsy appearance to the fly-cast, and is not 

 adapted, either to improve its lightness or better its 

 proportions. Loops also, unless they draw or sit well, 

 are apt to catch and disturb the water, so as to alarm 

 the fish. I recommend them in the construction of all 

 trouting tackle, to be employed as sparingly as possible. 

 The bob, or dropper, in the making up of the fly-cast, 

 ought, if the length of the gut it is dressed on will 

 admit it, to form, in the first instance, a continuation 

 at the letter a, with the main line, and then be made 



