Chapt. xin. My double loop-knot. 165 



the loop of the snood, and hitch on to the running line 

 again. This is a tedious operation, and time is too pre- 

 cious when fish are taking. I have therefore a little 

 knot of my own for getting over this difficulty. It is a 

 double loop, made of a single length of good stout salmon 

 gut, though in the accompanying plate it is drawn in 

 cord; simply because the twist in the fibre of the cord 

 enables the knot to be shewn more clearly than it other- 

 wise could be. 



Commence by thoroughly well soaking your gut for a 

 quarter of an hour or more. Then arrange it as in figure 

 1, Plate IV ; , and tie a simple whip knot or common knot 

 in it, such as is commonly tied at the end of a whip; a 

 single knot not a blood-knot. The gut will then be dis- 

 posed as shewn in figure 2. If in this stage you take the 

 trouble to see that the guts fall evenly side by side, and 

 not across each other, your knot will be both tighter and 

 neater than if clumsily tied. Pull the two loops, and the 

 two ends, till you get all quite taught; and then cut off 

 the ends, and you will have a neat knot as in figure 3. 

 When neatly tied, and well pulled together, in well soaked . 

 gut, the knot is a very neat and strong one indeed. Of 

 course you will arrange to have a large loop at one end, 

 and a small at the other. A very little manipulation is 

 sufficient for this. 



Put the end of your trace through the small loop, and 

 then pass the big loop through the trace loop, and you 

 have then furnished your trace with a large loop of double 

 salmon gut, big enough to pass any bait, and strong enough 



