DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 57 



As to the proper time and place for attaching 

 flies to gut opinions must always differ; but 

 the plan of doing so in cool blood indoors 

 before the breakfast things have been cleared 

 away, may at any rate be tried. It is more 

 extravagant of gut certainly, as such mounted 

 flies kept in a damp box, or still better in the 

 damp flannel fold of a flap cap, are bound to 

 become either rotten as to their gut or rusty in 

 their barbs, and must be sacrificed from sheer 

 economy in the matter of breaks. 



Where you know your water, and have quite 

 made up your mind irrespective of local advice 

 as to what patterns you intend to use or try, 

 the threading process at the breakfast table is 

 useful and interesting. The points have of 

 course been soaked the evening before, so that 

 fastening the fly becomes not only a leisurely 

 process but is attended to with a care and 

 nicety that minimises accident at the bank side. 

 It is a satisfactory plan to look at the knot 

 through a pocket magnifying glass, and see that 

 it has fallen into its place rightly, whether you 

 use the Turle or the double-jamb knot. 



The possession of half a dozen of such flies 

 mounted for immediate use, makes the change 

 of pattern an easier, quicker, and safer process 

 when executed in the presence we will not say 

 in the sight of a readily rising fish. There is 

 then no attempted threading of a semi-blind eye 

 in a biting wind or a pattering shower, with its 

 risk of snipping off some of the wing or hackle 

 with the scissors. 



