Fitting up Stiiiting-lines. 51 



middle or top one, which will enable the line to be thrown 

 straighter ; after this dress your flies of any pattern you 

 require ; tie the foot of your casting-line to the top of 

 your stinting, as before described, by a water-knot, loop 

 your casting-line to your reel-line, and your rod and 

 line are now ready for a cast or throw. 



Of course, it is at the option of the Angler to use two, 

 three, four, or half-a-dozen flies at once, if he can only 

 cast them clear out on to the water ; but more than two 

 or three should not be commenced with, and are generally 

 found sufficient for averaged sized trouting streams. 



If you wish to kill trout in a very fine low water in 

 the height of summer, where the generality of fish do 

 not run very large, gut should be altogether discarded. 

 All your ingenuity and skill will have to be exercised, 

 during the months of June and July, in very clear and 

 small waters. At such times, and under such circum- 

 stances, you will have to resort to single-hair; and he 

 who once learns to handle his fish tenderly with such a 

 point-line or stinting will very seldom use gut, save in 

 large and partially swollen waters, or when they are a 

 little discoloured. The lightness and sweetness with 

 which hair falls upon the water, and the stiffness it re- 

 tains during a day's fishing, while gut gets flabby and 

 falls heavily, give it such a superiority, that it is now 

 become of general use among those who profess any skill 

 in Fly-fishing. Horse-hair, to be fit for . Fly-fishing 

 singly, should be round, transparent, strong, and of a good 

 length. Like gut, hair may be dyed of any colour re- 

 quired, some of the most useful recipes for which are 

 given in another place. The casting-line which you 

 attach to your single hair stinting, especially where your 

 line and stinting are tied together, must be finer than one 

 used with a gut-stinting. In selecting hairs for this 

 purpose be careful in examining and trying each one, and 



