116 Neat knot for a drop fly. Chapt. vil. 



fly at the precise distance you fancy from the tail fly; and 

 if a breakage or any thing has somewhat curtailed that 

 distance, you can hit it off again to a nicety. This is no 

 small point to my fancy, for it makes one unhappy to 

 have the drops crowded together. To move your first 

 drop a length further up will perhaps hring it too near 

 the other drop, whereas you had rather it were not quite 

 so near the tail fly. This is the dilemma in which you 

 are placed, if you are dependent on the knots at the joins, 

 whereas by my plan you can locate your drop fly just 

 where you have a mind, to an inch. Again it is superior 

 I think to other knots in the ease with which you can re- 

 move your fly. Pull the end A. and the drop, and the 

 knot will open, with a little aid of the nails on the knot. 

 Or if you are not handy at this work, or will not be troubl- 

 ed, nothing is easier than to nip the fly off close up to the 

 gut. You lose next to nothing of the length of the drop 

 thereby ; you lose considerably less than you do when nipr 

 ping off one of Francis Francis' drops. As soon as the 

 drop is removed, the whole knot easily straightens, and 

 a fresh knot is tied, for a fresh drop in, a fresh place, an 

 inch or so higher or lower. 



I have said be careful in tying the knot that the end 

 E. is the end nearest to the rod; the reason is obvious. 

 The knot is a slip knot, and therefore a heavy fish on the 

 drop might open it, if it were not so placed that the more 

 the fish pulls, the more he tightens the knot. The end 

 that tightens up the loop B. and keeps the knot at the 

 head of the drop from coming through that loop, is the 



