62 SCIENCE OP FISHING. 



For deep trolling wire lines are used. These may be a 

 single strand of copper wire, but such are likely to get 

 broken as they kink very easily. A line of braided copper 

 wire is better. Lines of other metals, rust-proof, are also 

 made for this purpose. Their advantage over other styles 

 of line is that they require no sinker and sink to the proper 

 depth of their own weight. They are used for muskellunge 

 and lake trout, especially the latter, which are nearly always 

 found in very deep water. 



Leaders, for fly fishing and for use with bait at times 

 are made of metal or of silkworm gut, depending on what 

 use is to be made of them. Those for trout, bass and salmon 

 are always made of silkworm gut. 



This is really a product of the silkworm. Most of it 

 comes from Murcia, Spain, but some comes from Italy. It is 

 made from the substance that the silk is made from, but it is 

 taken from the body of the worm before he spins his cocoon 

 from which we make silk. This raw product is found in a 

 little sack and sack and contents are drawn out into a thread 

 a foot or more in length, and allowed to harden. The sack 

 is then removed and a strand of silkworm gut remains ; a 

 hard, semi-transparent and very strong substance. It goes 

 through a bleaching and polishing process before it is ready 

 for use, and some of it is drawn through holes in metal 

 plates, like wire, to make it an even thickness and of equal 

 strength. Nearly all of the fine, light-weight gut is drawn 

 this way. Undrawn gut is not treated this way. 



The leaders are made by tying these pieces together into 

 lengths of three, six, or nine feet, with loops at the ends for 

 attaching line and snelled hook. There are single gut leaders 

 for light fishing and double gut leaders for heavier work. 

 The double or treble gut leaders are generally twisted. If 

 more than one thickness of gut is used it is better twisted 

 as twisting equalizes the strain. Six and nine-foot leaders 

 are now made mostly of three-foot lengths looped together 



