182 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



fly can be transferred again and again from one piece 

 of gut to another. The gut on which our smaller flies 

 are dressed is, as a rule, unnecessarily heavy ; in the 

 case of the eyed-fly, the angler may employ gut of any 

 weight he pleases. 



It seems that to the "jam " knot, with which 1 have 

 been in the habit of attaching the fly to the cast, and in 

 which I have hitherto reposed implicit confidence, there 

 are such grave objections that Mr. Cholmondeley-Pen- 

 nell no longer recommends its use. It was devised by 

 him, but, since experience has revealed its many imper- 

 fections, he has successfully applied his mind to the in- 

 vention of a better, which he calls the "half-hitch " knot, 

 (p- and the formation of which is illustrated 



^**==— ■•^^ in the lower of the two fig'ures in the 

 'y^ ^*x accompanying diagram. The upper 



figure represents the knot he has dis- 

 carded. It has failed to justify his faith in it. He has 

 found that it is insecure, and that the point of the cast, 

 projecting at right angles from the head of the fly, 

 catches on the weeds and produces a disturbance in the 

 water. The gravity of the first of these defects will be 

 realized by every angler ; the last concerns the dry-fly 

 fisherman alone. The knot has never disappointed 

 me ; though I have employed it for years, I have never 



