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beforehand, and was perfectly certain what would happen, for the first thing a 

 fisherman does while mounting his fly after the adjustment still holding by 

 the bend of the hook is to take the gut between the thumb and forefinger of 

 the right hand, about a foot from the work, and give a few hardish tugs to see 

 that the line is direct from the one point to the other. If it deviates the least 

 atom and it is obvious it would with the turned-up eyes the fly cannot 

 behave as it ought, or, rather, very often, as it must. We have only to ask 

 ourselves the question, upon which I laid so much stress in the current fly- 

 dressing articles Why are we so particular in tying our gut loop perfectly 

 straight under the shank ? Because we find the hook penetrates more readily, 

 and digs deeper and deeper in during a conflict . But with the loop above 

 (and the higher the metal-eyed one is turned up the greater the inclination), 

 the moment you strike at a fish the head of the hook bears down, and the bend 

 of the hook lifts up, the result being that its point scratches along, tearing its 

 way without taking hold at all. Moreover, were it to become accidentally im- 

 bedded, you could put little or no pressure on to the rod, for, if you did, the 

 hook would be gradually working its way up and out all the time. 



Old salmon anglers know full well the importance of a steady give-and- 

 take movement of the rod in playing the fly, and the moment I began that 

 motion the nez retrousse fly lifted its head coming up stream, and its tail going 

 down ; in fact, it was like the action of a nursery rocking-horse. 



This is doubtless what Mr. Field means when he says his fly did not "play 

 well in the water." 



If, as Mr. Pennell correctly but mildly puts it, "dropping the head is a 

 trifling blemish," or words to that effect (but we must bear in mind he was 

 alluding to trout flies), and that the erratic and fatal distinction as I would 

 rather have it is the same whether the fly be tied or looped on, how much 

 this dreadful drawback is increased may be easily imagined when, comparatively 

 speaking, such monster hooks as ours are being used. 



I did not observe the fault with the turned-down eyes ; indeed, how could 

 it be so ? And if they are found in practice to answer, it occurs to me flies will 

 last so much longer as to justify anglers in paying more to have them dressed 

 with natural instead of dyed feathers. That the former are superior in every 

 way I have long since determined. No matter how ably the dyeing process is 

 managed, our artificially-coloured feathers and hackles fiery browns excepted 

 never look so well, or are so advantageous. 



Hitherto, being well aware that the gut loop would not be trustworthy, 

 however well arranged, after a certain amount of wear and tear, we have 

 naturally hesitated to incur the extra expenditure involved in having our flies 

 dressed so extravagantly. 



I, for one, shall certainly try the turned-down eyed-hooks, and should not 

 hesitate to adopt them if I derive ever so little benefit. The ordinary gut-loop 

 accommodates itself in use, whichever way we knot or loop the trace to it, 

 turning up with our adjustment commenced from below. But were we to 



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