20 



THE FLY FISHER'S GUIDE. 



sufficient ; for lakes, where the fish are large, 

 and a boat is not used, forty to fifty yards may 

 be required ; and for salmon, in large rivers, 

 eighty or even a hundred will not be too great a 

 quantity. 



Single-handed rod fishers prefer their reel lines 

 to run taper to the point, so that they may, by 

 merely fixing their foot length of gut to the line, 

 wind it up close to their hand ; and where the 

 stream is narrow and bushes frequent, this is cer- 

 tainly a good plan. But for bold streams the 

 reel line should be of equal thickness throughout, 

 and not too fine, in order that a taper hair line, 

 of ten yards in length, may be attached thereto. 



The most important consideration in the mak- 

 ing of lines is the selection of the hair, which 

 must be round, even, and free from scales. If 

 plucked from the tail of a young horse or mare, 

 it is not so good as that which is to be procured 

 from a four or five-year-old gelding; but the best 

 is to be had from the tail of a well-grown stal- 

 lion ; and those hairs are generally most free 



