FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 



53 



you can. I do not believe at all in tapering an ordinary 

 trout cast. The cast is, of course, only as strong as its 

 .weakest place, and therefore you may as well have the 

 advantage of all fine gut. As to being able to throw better 

 with a tapered cast, it is, I fancy, only imagination ; when 

 using a cast of three or three-and-a-half yards, all you 

 require to enable you to throw to the exactness of an inch 

 is, either to have the line tapered, or should it not be, 

 whip one-and-a-half yards of salmon gut to it, but with a 

 long cast, such as four-and-a-half yards. It is better to 

 have the first yard of rather stouter gut than the rest. 



In making up a cast, the strands should be joined 

 together by tying a knot round each strand with the end 

 of the other, as in fig. 1, then drawing them close and 



