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or to cast at all well against the wind ; and a splash in 

 the water is avoided by the taper and the casting line. 

 Such a line will last a lifetime with care, and without 

 care will outwear a half-dozen of the best horse hair lines 

 ever made. It never has to be dried, except out of 

 abundant caution in case the entire roll on the reel should 

 get soaked. It is strong and reliable, and has no weak 

 places. It will not cut, and it does not catch in the rings 

 of the rod. Old fishermen who read these words, and 

 who have used hair lines, will appreciate the weight of 

 what we say. 



The hair line is lighter, and can be made under certain 

 circumstances, to fall more gently on the water, but in 

 recommending fine tackle we do not mean to recommend 

 any that is too fine to be practical. Some men use a 

 light, limber rod in bass fishing, because, as they say, it 

 takes them longer to kill their fish. This is Miss Nan- 

 cyism, and there is nothing we despise more. Use the 

 most eflective tackle under all circumstances ; for coarse 

 fish, strong line and rod ; for shy fish fine lines and gut 

 leaders, but always that which will kill the most in the 

 shortest time, and with the greatest ease and certainty. 

 When you go sailing for blue fish it would be a folly to 

 use a line so thin that it would cut your hands and might 

 not hold your fish; but in casling for trout in clear wa- 

 ter, you must fish far and fish well, and to do this the 

 water-proof line, all things considered, will be found to 

 be the best. 



Casting Line. — More important even than the line is 

 the casting line or leader, as we usually call it, made of 

 lengths of silk-worm gut. For the salmon fishing it 

 should be of round, clear, transparent single strands, not 

 too heavy, but tough and strong, and tapered, by choos- 

 ing the heaviest for the upper portion. No double or 



