REEL-LINES. 53 



and ascertain, by breaking or trying to break it, what is its 

 actual strength. 



It appears, then, that on a computation of advantages and 

 disadvantages our support should be given to dressed silk lines 

 for fly-fishing ; and as these are made of every thickness, from 

 that of an ordinary piece of stout sewing cotton almost to that 

 of a bell rope, everyone can, without difficulty, suit his par- 

 ticular objects and tastes. Dressed silk has in rough weather 

 a ' driving ' power which cannot be obtained with any undressed 

 material, and nothing but silk appears to be capable of taking 

 the dressing properly.' 



Then comes the question : Shall the dressed silk line be 

 * level ' — that is, of equal substance throughout — or ' tapered,' 

 which means in ordinary parlance, getting finer towards the end 

 at which the casting line is to be attached ? The latter is some- 

 times what is called ' double tapered,' that is, the line is tapered 

 at both ends — or it may be only a 'single taper,' when, of 

 ■course, the taper is made at one end only. As between level 

 and tapered lines, each haS its advantages and its disadvantages, 

 but, on the whole, I think nine fly-fishers out of ten prefer, in 

 practice, a hne more or less tapered towards the casting end. 



So far as the actual casting is concerned, apart from ' fine 

 fishing,' these details are of little importance on quiet days, but 

 in stormy weather, when the wind is blowing half a gale, perhaps 

 right in the fly-fisher's teeth, the case is radically altered, and 

 the man whose line is properly tapered and balanced and in 

 weight exactly suited to his rod will be able to go on casting 

 with comparative efficiency, while his neighbour, less perfectly 

 equipped, will find his flies blown back in his face every other 

 ■cast. 



The importance, to the salmon fisher especially, of a line 



^ The art of dressing a line, whether for trolling or fly fishing, is in itself a 

 speciality, and one which few amateurs will probably find it worth taking the 

 trouble to practise for themselves, but in case they should desire to become 

 their own line dressers, they are advised to try the receipt given by Major 

 Traheme, in his article on fishing for salmon with the fly, as the result of his ex- 

 perience on the best mode of dressing silk lines for fly-fishing. 



