GUT AND GUT SUBSTITUTE 67 



coffee-coloured gut bottoms with gilt hooks. Fish 

 can see the gut silhouetted against the sky, and in 

 very clear water with unruffled surface good trans- 

 parent gut of finest size must be used if success is to 

 follow. However, a cast if skilfully dropped on the 

 water does not necessarily frighten the fish, for it is 

 not an unknown happening for trout to rise to a knot 

 on the cast. 



When gut is being knotted or tied, too much 

 emphasis cannot be laid on the fact that it should be 

 soaked for half an hour in a saucerful of lukewarm 

 water, as even the very best gut is brittle enough to 

 break when tied in a knot unless it is first of all 

 thoroughly moistened. When actually fishing and 

 one is obliged to take a new piece of gut, it can be 

 moistened in the mouth for a few seconds, and this 

 method is better than not wetting it at all. 



" Fish fine " is one of the fisherman's axioms, and 

 for that reason a tapered cast can be presented 

 more gently and accurately than a level cast, as the 

 end tapers off gradually to the fly like a very fine 

 whiplash and therefore the thicker portion will be 

 out of range of the fish's vision. For wet-fly and 

 bottom fishing a level cast is the best. Heavy salmon 

 casts are not infrequently of twisted gut at the 

 thickest end. 



Flies tied permanently on gut are now little used. 

 It is much better to attach a 1 2-inch fine gut point to 

 the eye of the fly, and the fly can be reattached on the 

 cast on fine or stronger gut as the occasion warrants. 



The most important knots used for gut are illus- 

 trated in this work, and a brief description will suffice. 

 The first diagram (see Frontispiece) illustrates a useful 

 knot for attaching droppers. These are used when 



