232 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



common click or check winch. I like one to be capable of 

 holding 120 or 130 yards of line. Some people think a little 

 more than half that quantity sufficient. Twice or three times 

 in my life I should certainly have been broken if I had not had 

 more than one hundred yards, and on each occasion I have been 

 lucky enough to slay my fish. I grant it does not happen once 

 in a hundred times in ordinary salmon-fishing that one parts 

 with more than, or even as much as one hundred yards, but 

 the weight of a score or two of extra yards of line is so insig- 

 nificant a matter, and the confidence and satisfaction there is 

 when playing a large fish, in knowing that you have ample 

 for all hazards, incline me to hold to my opinion ; besides, a 

 line of that length can easily be turned end for end when at all 

 worn, and will serve as two good lines, which is a matter of 

 economy, whereas in a sixty or seventy yards line turned thus 

 you would soon get into the weak part in a good run that you 

 would always be in danger, because the pull would come just 

 at the distance where a fish is at his strongest at the end of 

 a forty or fifty yards run,* 



Formerly salmon lines were twisted and made of horse-hair 

 alone, or of horse-hair and silk ; but eight-plait dressed silk 

 lines having been introduced, the others are now not often 

 used, as the eight-plait silk line which has been carefully and 

 well dressed runs through the rings so much more smoothly, 

 is less liable to kink or catch, and does not hold so much water, 

 besides throwing better against the wind. Tapered lines, or 

 lines which are gradually reduced to a smaller size towards the 

 end, are usually much preferred. Their cost is greater, but 

 they have this advantage : they cast more evenly, and do 

 not sink so deeply in the water towards the point, and are 

 therefore fetched off it more easily, and, as already stated, as 

 the length of the cast is governed by the quantity which can 

 be easily and quickly withdrawn from the surface, it will 

 at once be seen that there is a, considerable advantage in a 

 well-tapered line. It must be remembered that heavy rods 

 and heavy waters require heavy lines ; but unless the angler 

 wishes to strain his top joint, and open the splices, he should 

 never use a heavy line to a light rod. It is inconceivable what 

 an amount of mischief in wear and tear, and what a lot of bad 



* Here again present-day anglers enjoy a convenience unknown to Francis. 

 Of a reel line 1 50 yards in length, not more than 40 or 50 yards need be of 

 the weight necessary for casting, the rest consisting of tarpon " backing," 

 which, being very fine and as strong as an eight-plait dressed silk line, enables 

 one to use a much smaller and lighter reel. ED. 



