26 SALMON AND TROUT. 



size of the fly and fineness of the gut. The finer the gut the 

 longer should be the end left over. 



JAM KNOT COMPLETE. 



There is no advantage with the jam knot in cutting off the 

 gut too close, as the free gut-end which should be left over 

 mingles naturally with the hackles of the fly. After cutting off 

 the waste gut it is convenient to nip the free end down with 

 the thumb nail in the direction of the hook-bend. This may 

 be repeated whenever the flies are examined, which, of course — 

 as with ordinary gut-flies— they should be at intervals, to see 

 that the gut has not frayed at all at the head, and also that the 

 free end has not by any accident been drawn in or shortened 

 to the ' unsafe ' point. 



During the last few years, including the present season, 

 1889, I have caught, I should say, at least a thousand white 

 and brown trout, weighing from a few ounces up to three or 

 four lbs., in both stream and loch, with flies dressed on the 

 turn-down eyed hook, and attached by the jam knot — some- 

 times on traces fine even to the fineness of ' Bullmer's gossa- 

 mer gut'— and I cannot call to mind a single instance in 

 which the knot has been proved to have failed. Moreover (a 

 hint to the novice) flies thus attached very rz.re\y fiick off. 



With small flies the simplest way, when the gut becomes 

 frayed at the head by wear and tear, is to cut or break the fly 



little invention, which I registered a year or two ago under the name of the 

 ' Combined Gut-cutters and Tweezers,' I have found much practical comfort, 

 and, indeed, seldom start on a fishing expedition of any sort without first sus- 

 pending a pair from my button-hole — a position in which they are most readily 

 available, and least likely to disappear when wanted. In the use of eyed 

 hooks especially — one of the charms of which is the facility offered for rapidly 

 changing hooks or flics when needful — I have found them almost indispens- 

 able. They are obtainable at all tackle shops. 



