62 CLEARING-LINE—TO SECURE REEL. [PART I. 
A simple method of clearing your line, 
when otherwise “in trouble” is to fasten a stone 
to a piece of stout string, which should be al- 
ways carried in the fishing-basket, and then, 
pitching the stone over the offending branch or 
weeds, haul away at the string. This expedient 
will often set you free at once, and save a deal 
of bother. 
When fishing with a rod to which there is 
no convenience for fastening the reel, a piece of 
leather wetted and put under the reel before it 
is tied on, will be found sufficient to keep it from 
slipping. When the straight piece of brass under 
the reel is too small for the hollow made to re- 
ceive it in the rod, a slight bend given down- 
wards to the brass, which can generally be done 
with the hand, will, on an emergency, be found 
to make it fit sufficiently tight for use. 
My experience leads me to believe that—whe- 
ther using the fly or spinning—it is, if your tackle 
is fine, a great mistake to fish too fast. The act 
of drawing the fly along rapidly imparts to it an 
unnatural motion,—for when did a Trout ever see 
a fly propelling itself rapidly under water? Be- 
sides this it must have a tendency to bring the 
fly to the surface, when it leaves a wake behind 
