10 HINTS FOR BEGINNERS. 



magnifying glass should be carried and the hook 

 examined through it, when a touch with a fine 

 file can often be given with advantage. When- 

 ever a fish is lost and the fly comes back 

 apparently free the thought of ' barb gone ' 

 should recur, even with grayling whose mouths 

 far more often give way to the hook than the 

 barb does to them. 



Just as spare flies tied on to gut should be 

 carried already damped, so in summertime should 

 an entire spare cast be made ready with a single 

 fly probably a sedge attached to it and be 

 coiled either round one's hat (in wet weather) 

 or kept in an envelope between damp blotting 

 paper. Then if a hopeless break occurs after 

 sundown it proves a godsend to the distracted 

 fisherman and relieves him of that arm-straining 

 action of holding up a cast to the sky and 

 making entanglement worse entangled. He can 

 cut the whole cast adrift and put on the new 

 one within a few minutes. This spare cast need 

 not be more than seven feet and should be 

 devoid of any * dropper ' for the obvious reason 

 that in the dusk when throwing for rises the 

 tail fly is all one wants to watch, while if a good 

 fish takes it and careers as near to bushes and 

 weeds as he can there is no dropper to assist 

 him in hitching up. After a few seasons' 

 experience it will be found that the loss of an 

 entire cast is a rare occurrence. You may use 

 one through a Mayfly week without losing 

 anything beyond the point or last strand of fine 

 gut. Sometimes however in windy weather 



