FLOAT-TACKLE AND ITS USES 167 



get a direct strike on to the fish. I almost invari- 

 ably grease my line when using float-tackle, the only 

 exception being when fishing from a boat in a stream 

 which keeps the line extended and on the surface. 

 Striking on a slack line is one of the principal causes 

 of an empty creel. Very often, too, a line that sinks 

 will get caught on the bottom between stones, water- 

 lily roots, old stumps, and so forth. 



I need hardly say it is not necessary to grease the 

 whole of the line, but merely about twenty yards of 

 it, and the floating of the line is considerably helped 

 by placing on it a fragment of cork two or three yards 

 from the float. The exact position of this supple- 

 mentary float has to depend on the length of the rod 

 and the depth we are fishing, for if the water is very 

 deep and there is much line below the float, then, if 

 we place a cork any distance up the line, when the 

 fish is brought near the punt it will be found that the 

 cork catches in the top-ring and prevents the fish 

 being reeled up within gaffing distance. One draw- 

 back to the undressed lines is that, notwithstanding 

 the greasing they receive, they sooner or later absorb 

 water. When this is the case they should be most 

 carefully and thoroughly dried, for it is of little use 

 adding more grease when the line is very wet. With 

 regard to this drying, if we have a plaited or water- 





