14 GUT—CARE AS TO TACKLE. [PART I. 
it scarcely alarms Trout more than gut, if it do 
so at all. The very fine gimp should however be 
always tested before it is used, as the silk within 
it is apt to be faulty and give. The same remark 
indeed applies to all kinds of tackle, be it line, 
single gut, treble gut, or gimp. Remember that 
when a break occurs it is generally to the best 
fish. Treble gut is scarcely to be more relied 
on than single ; the fact being that all the weak 
bad gut is worked up, and looks well enough so. 
As an instance,—whilst spinning on the Garry, 
I got my hooks fast the other side of a deep black 
pool, and, not caring to swim for it, deliberately 
pulled till something broke. My trace being of 
single gut, the shot fastened on treble gut, and 
having gimp next the hooks, I was curious to see 
which the something would be. It was the treble 
gut, possibly worn by the rubbing of the shot. 
In this, as in all other kinds of fishing, it is 
impossible, consistently with the requisite amount 
of strength, to have your tackle too fine: perhaps 
in no other is it so essential to have the two 
qualities combined. There are few tackle-makers 
in London who know much about this branch of 
their art. Gould, of 268, Oxford-street, (whom I 
have also pleasure in recommending as a careful 
