20 TAPERING SHAPE OF FLY-LINES. 



knots are made, but any fishing-tackle maker will 

 show you. 



I have now prepared you for fishing with three 

 flies on three yards of gut casting-line. That 

 line, as well as your reel- line and rod, should 

 taper " fine by degrees and beautifully less." It 

 should be thicker towards the hand, and dwindle 

 away gradually to its end further from you. If 

 the extreme end of your line should be the thick- 

 est part of it, common sense will tell you that 

 when you cast it there must ensue a rapider and 

 heavier descent upon the water than when that 

 end of your line is the finest part of it. The 

 gradual tapering of the line causes it to stretch 

 out with the cast without kinking or coiling 

 and to fall lightly and straightly on the water. 

 Keel-lines (the best sorts are made of hair, or 

 of two thirds hair and one third silk) are twisted 

 in the shape of a spindle or a procupine's quill 

 thick in the middle and tapering off in nice 

 gradation to each end. A line so shaped has 

 this advantage ; when you have nearly worn 

 out one end, you can have recourse to the other, 

 which is completely fresh, having been that part 

 wound first on the reel, and hitherto protected 

 from the action of air and water. The used 

 part is to be now wound next the reel. Your 

 gut casting-line must be formed of links each 

 finer than the other, but not with marked dis- 



