Lines. 69 



What should be a pleasure is a sickening disappoint- 

 ment. He is trying to accomplish the almost impossi- 

 ble a task no expert would attempt. 



Remember the integrity of your tackle should al- 

 ways be absolutely above suspicion. Buy your line of 

 a house with a reputation to maintain, and ask for the 

 best and pay the price, and you will get it. Be sure if 

 a seeming bargain is offered you in fishing-tackle, you 

 will eventually find it dear at any price. For trout- 

 fishing F is the best size if the line is " level," but E if 

 "tapered." 



For actual fly-fishing these seem to me the sizes best 

 adapted to the average American fly-rod of to-day ; still 

 there is at present unquestionably a tendency among 

 experts towards heavier grades. The enormous distances 

 covered at the recent casting tournaments naturally ex- 

 cite the emulation of those who witness or read of them, 

 and they as naturally turn to that style of line which is 

 best for that purpose. It is undoubtedly an accomplish- 

 ment to be able repeatedly to cast to the distance of 

 eighty feet, and retrieve the line without fastening a fly 

 in your ear ; since he who can do this can cover the ex- 

 treme limit of practical fly-fishing with the utmost ease, 

 and can therefore devote all his attention to delicacy 

 and accuracy. But whether the use on a single-handed 

 fly-rod unless it be very short and stiff of lines so 

 heavy as C or even D is really an advance in the art, 

 seems to me very questionable. Does it not entail a 

 sacrifice on the part of all, except perhaps the most skil- 

 ful, of those important requisites, delicacy and accuracy 

 (construing the latter term to include not only reaching 

 the desired point> but doing so with a perfectly straight 

 line) ; and this to attain a command of distance seldom 



