Ric ror Barr-risura. 195 
from the middle to each end, as sold by our fishing-tackle 
men, 1s the best. The same may be said of the ordinary click 
reel, though it were better did it multiply. “The casting- 
line of silk-worm gut should be well tapered, and seven 
lengths of long single gut, tinged rather than dyed with the 
ordinary decoction of logwood and alum. The knots should 
be tied with care, but not whipped with thread—an operation 
which should be confined solely to the upper joints of the 
line. They ought to be of picked material, sound, clear, and 
fine, without flaw or fretting.” 
Tlooks should be of finest steel, needle-pointed, and cither 
the common Aberdeen round bend, Wutchinson’s round bend, 
Sproat’s bend, or the Kinsey bend, known as the Pennsylva- 
nia trout-hook. “Before attaching the snell or gut, file and 
break off from a quarter to half an inch of the shank, which 
is usually too long.” This I have found best with hooks for 
small striped bass, which weigh each from half a pound to 
three pounds. Tie on the hooks with red silk, well waxed. 
“Some wornrfishers of celebrity adopt a small projection of 
gut or bristle, as in the tackle used for the stone fly,” ete. 
Sinkers should be made of split shot, from all sizes between 
pigeon and buck shot, according to the tide or current, or 
by winding sheet-lead round the line a foot or more above 
the hook. The bait should play under water, be kept movy- 
ing, and never allowed to sink to the bottom or float on the 
surface; and when the current is swift, shot should be dis- 
tributed above the regular sinker on the casting-line, 
The best bait-anglers seldom use a float; when they do it 
is very small, only large enough to float the lightest sinker 
that will answer for the water. Casts should be regularly 
made, and the bait kept moving as if it were a fly under wa- 
ter; or ifin the current of a stream, should be made to move 
with the current, as if there were no hook init. The head 
of the worm should be broken off, and the hook so baited 
with the remainder as to leave an inch ofthe tail free to play 
naturally. 
