STAINING GUT. 49 



dark a stain has been given it may readily be reduced in 

 intensity by soaking the gut in clean boiling water. 



For the common ' red water stain,' an infusion of tea leaves, 

 boiled down until a teacupful of black tea in a quart of water 

 becomes a pint, gives a nice clean transparent tint ; or coffee 

 that has been previously charred in a frying-pan and ground, 

 will answer instead of tea. 



When the gut is not entirely round and clear, or, in other 

 words, is ' stringy,' it is very apt to have a sort of gloss, and, 

 when the sun is shining upon it, glittering effect in the water, 

 which is highly undesirable. In such a case I have tried, 

 with apparently good effects, slightly rubbing down the gut 

 wuth dryish cobbler's wax. This also has the effect of making 

 the gut fiotant — a hint for the ' dry-fiy.' 



I once at Loch Leven met with the friend of a fly-fisher 

 who never used to stain gut, but took off the glitter by simply 

 pulling it once through a piece of fine emery paper. . . . 

 This is drawn gut with the 'chill off.' 



For dressing flies, where gut is used in the bodies, Judson's 

 aniline dyes, kept by most chemists, will produce any sort of 

 stain required. The directions are given on the bottles, but 

 I recommend the use of only one-half the proportion of water. 

 Some of the stains produced by the aniline dyes, however, 

 destroy the texture of the gut. 



Hair, which I cannot recommend for any sort of fiy-fishing, 

 and which when used should be taken from the tail of a stallion, 

 is seldom stained, being generally preferred of the natural 

 brownish tint. If, however, it is required to stain it for the 

 purpose of fly-tying or otherwise, the animal greasiness must 

 be first removed by slightly boiling the hair in a 'mordant' 

 obtained from an ounce of alum dissolved in a pint of water. 

 This is also a good preparatory mordant for feathers before 

 they are dyed. 



The length for the casting line itself, shown by general 

 experience to be the most convenient, is about three yards. 

 In the case of salmon fishing with a second fly, or lake trout 



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