8 SPINNING-TACKLE : 



pensive,* and that there are one or two other 

 rather serious annoyances and drawbacks 



* It must not be supposed from this remark that 

 I am an advocate for cheap, and therefore inferior, 

 tackle. There are few things in which extreme 

 cheapness is worse economy. Gut, for example, 

 which, if carefully chosen, and a fair price paid for 

 it, will frequently last for years ; if selected on the 

 "pennywise" principle, will seldom hold out as many 

 weeks. Instead of a round, durable, and transparent 

 strand, you get a substance opaque, stringy, and 

 uneven, with a constant tendency to peel and crack. 



This point is still more important in hooks and 

 swivels, which may be so well imitated that their 

 defects cannot be detected, except by the test of 

 actual wear and tear, and probably the loss of good 

 fish. 



Some anglers run to an opposite extreme in the 

 matter of gut, and insist upon getting it of immense 

 thickness, and of course, therefore, proportionably 

 shorter in the strand. This is equally a delusion : 

 very thick gut is exceedingly difficult to procure 

 r eally good, and cannot be procured at all except at 

 an exorbitant price. A round clear gut of medium 

 substance is very nearly as strong ; is less liable to 

 crack when not thoroughly moistened ; is compara- 

 tively easily obtained ; and costs about a third. 



