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Information on Gut and Fly Casting Fishing Lines.
Gut and Fly Casting Fishing Lines Next to the fly and its etceteras comes the Casting Line, involving matters connected with the selection, knotting, twisting, staining, &c. Of gut. 1 The best gut is the longest and roundest, and the most transparent ; an observation which applies equally to salmon and trout gut natural and drawn. For practical purposes these desiderata must be considered in conjunction with, if not, indeed, made subordinate to, the question of the fineness or strength of the gut in proportion to the fishing for which it is to be used. To get salmon gut which fulfils all the conditions pointed out is becoming yearly a matter of greater difficulty, and, I might almost say, of favour. A perfect hank of salmon gut can only be obtained, as a rule, by picking the strands out of a number of other hanks, which, of course, makes these considerably less valuable. Sixpence a strand I have known a shilling a strand paid for picked salmon gut is not at all an unusual or, indeed, unreasonable An account of the process of gut manufacture is given in the curlier editions. Price, having regard to the difficulty of obtaining gut of really superior quality, and the all-important part it plays in a sport which, if not quite so expensive as deer stalking or grouse driving, is certainly becoming rapidly a luxury that only rich men can hope to enjoy. As the rent of a salmon river, to say nothing of incidental expenses, may probably be reckoned at seldom less than three figures, it is really the soundest economy to begrudge no expense connected with the tackle, rod, &c., upon which the sport obtained for all this outlay depends. Moreover, as regards gut, I believe that the best, and, consequently, the most expensive, is, in the long run, actually the most economical if proper care be taken of it. A thoroughly well-made casting line of carefully picked salmon gut will outlast three or four made of inferior strands, and during all its 4 lifetime ' will be a source of satisfaction. The breaking dead weight strain of a strand of the stoutest salmon gut, round, smooth, and perfect in every respect, ought not to be less than somewhere between fifteen and eighteen pounds. Why in the case of salmon gut, as in that of all other commodities, the demand does not produce the supply, it is difficult to see. Caterpillars ought to be easily cultivated one would say. Think of the number of strands which might be produced by the inhabitants of a single mulberry tree ! Millions of spinning worms That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk. I cannot but believe also, that by the application to gutmaking of the same energy and intelligence which is being applied all over the world to other manufactures, a much longer and generally more perfect ' staple ' might be produced. From a quarter to a half of the actual gut of the silkworm appears to be lost by the present process, as will be seen on examining the waste ends of a hank of any sort of gut that has not been picked and * lengthed.' For gut of extraordinary quality and strength, as much as from 5/. To 7/. Per hundred strands -wholesale price is now stated to be frequently paid in Marseilles this gut being, it appears, principally exported to Constantinople. Some samples of the 1884 crop, tested by my friend Mr. R. B. Marston, broke at a dead strain of seventeen pounds. A writer under the signature of ' Creel,' mentions that some fifty years ago there could be found in the market a superior class of salmon gut now said to be unprocurable owing to the total extinction of the silkworm that produced it. 'Since this time,' he says, we have more than once been informed that a new breed of silkworm has been raised and encouraged in the South of France, introduced from Japan, possessing all the features of the former fine and strong gut which from its absence has caused the lament of many a veteran salmon fisher.' In the selection of gut, aim first, as Chitty says, in his ' Fly Fisher's Text-book,' 'at that which is perfectly round,' to which end the best assistance the eye can receive is from the thumb and forefinger, between which the gut should be rolled quickly ; if it is not round but flat, the defect by this process will be at once discovered. Next to roundness, colourlessness and transparency are the two points of most importance ; and last though, as some fishermen will perhaps suggest, not least comes the question of length. Chitty, above named, gives for salmon gut 'the part used' 'sixteen to eighteen inches at least.' I can only say I wish we may get it ! In these degenerate days ten to twelve inches would be nearer the ordinary attainable mark, and for trout gut an inch or two more, say thirteen to fourteen, or, in exceptionally good strands, fifteen inches, when the casts are made tip. 'Drawn gut,' as it is called, is simply gut that has been artificially scraped or fined down by being ' drawn ' through a hole of a certain gauge or measure. For this purpose a steel plate is used having several holes or gauges diminishing gradually in size, and the ' face edges ' of which are quite sharp. The gut is put through the holes in succession, beginning at the largest and ending with the smallest, when it has of course become of the desired fineness. The appearance of the gut after undergoing this process is not, however, so clean and transparent as the undoctored material, and though it looks beautifully fine and, indeed, is so it commonly frays and wears out very rapidly when exposed to moisture or friction of any sort. Drawn gut is, however, extensively used for many of the finer sorts of fishing, both with fly and bait. For my own part I prefer to pay almost any price, so to speak, for the natural gut whenever it can be obtained of the requisite fineness. This, however, is not always. Knotting. There is a kind of ' endless ' knot with which the casting lines prepared in some tackle shops are joined that seems for ordinary purposes to be about perfection ; but how this knot is tied is a trade secret which I have failed to find out. Decidedly the best as well as the simplest knot ' open to the public/ and one which is equally applicable to the finest and the strongest gut, is what is known as the single (and double) fisherman's knot (sometimes called * water knot'), varied in the case of salmon gut, for heavy work, in the way described presently. The gut having been thoroughly well soaked beforehand (in tepid water best) which is, of course, a sine qua non in all gut knottings the two ends of gut, A, A, are laid parallel to each other, being held in that position between the first finger and thumb of the left hand in the position in which they are to be joined. A half-hitch knot, B, B, is then made by the right hand with the end of each strand alternately round the strand of the other, and each separately drawn tight, the two separate halves of the knot being finally drawn closely together and the ends cut off. It has been pointed out that the single fisherman's knot varied as I have described in the case of salmon lines is all that is required for any description of gut knotting. I should, perbaps, however, make an exception to this statement. In the case of drawn gut, and also in natural gut of exceptional fineness, the extreme limpness of the strands makes the single fisherman's knot very liable to ' draw ' if the ends are cut at all close, as they should be on the score of neatness. In such cases it is, therefore, better to make the knot with two double, instead of two single, half-hitches ; the end, that is, with which each half-knot is tied is passed twice instead of once round the central link and through the loop, in the manner shown in the engraving. This is the ' double ' fisherman's FIG. 2. DOUBLE FISHERMAN'S KNOT. Knot. With very fine gut the increase in the size of the knot is so small as not to be worth considering, whilst the increase of strength obtained is of importance. Except for salmon fishing, if a drop -fly is used it is not a bad plan to pass the end of the gut-link of the fly between the two strands of the joining gut and between the two halves of the knot before drawing the latter close. The drop-fly will Then stand out at right angles to the casting line, a result which it is desirable to attain. A single knot tied in the link of the drop fly at the required distance outside the knot in the casting line prevents its slipping. DROP FLY ATTACHMENTS FOR TROUT CASTING LINES. Another and still simpler attachment for the drop-fly, which in practice I usually adopt as being much the quickest, is, with a double half-hitch ( of the knot in fig. 2), to knot on the drop-fly fly uppermost to the casting line (fig. 5). On this knot being pulled tight, and slipped down as far as the next juncture on the line, it will be found to answer exceedingly well, although the point of junction is one which will always have to be carefully looked at from time to time, as the friction of the drop-fly knot is apt to fray away the link to which it is attached. For salmon fishing I never myself use a second fly, unless by any chance the river or lake I am fishing be also tenanted by sea trout, and then, of course, the fly is a comparatively small one, for which the last-named attachment, fig. 5, will answer every purpose or slightly better, perhaps, the fly may be attached above one of the knots with a loop, as shown in fig. 6 ; or, stronger still, as in fig. 7, an attachment which also gives the maximum stand-out-at-rightangle inclination to the fly, and the principle of which, as applied to casting lines with the ordinary splice, I mentioned in the 6 Modern Practical Angler.' Fig. 8 explains itself. FIG, 6. FIG. 8. HG. 7. Nothing can well be more clumsy than the knots usually employed in joining the strands of a salmon casting line, and their inefficiency in the matter of strength is on a par with their unsightliness. In the ' Book of the Pike,' 1865, I gave diagrams and explanations of the buffer knot above referred to, in which the objectionable features of the old method of splicing are got rid of, whilst a very great additional strength is obtained. To tie it lay the two strands side by side and proceed in exactly the same manner as already described for tying the single fisherman's knot, with the exception of the final drawing together of the two separate half -hitches. Instead of drawing these two half-knots together and lapping down the ends on the outside, as was the old manner, draw the knots only to within about three-sixteenths or one-eighth of an inch of each other, as shown in the engraving at A, and lap between them with light waxed silk, or, still more artistic, with very fine (soaked) gut. This ' between lapping ' relieves the knot itself of half its duty, and on any sudden jerk, such as striking, acts as a sort of ' buffer ' to receive and distribute the strain. Tied in the old-fashioned way I find that, on applying a steady pull, a salmon gut casting line breaks almost invariably at the knot. Tied in the manner I suggest it will probably break at any other point in preference. FIG. 9. THE BUFFER KNOT FOR SALMON GUT. Major Traherne, whose almost unequalled experience as a salmon fisher entitles his opinion to the utmost weight, wrote as follows on the buffer knot for salmon casting lines : ' Not long ago I fondly imagined I had invented a plan for uniting the links of a casting line without knots, and was on my way to the Fishing Gazette office to unfold my secret. My friend Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell happened to accompany me on a different business, and on my letting him know what mine was turned round and said, u My dear fellow, I am very sorry for you, but I brought that out years ago in the 'Modern Practical Angler/" and as we were passing Farlow's shop at the time he took me in and soon convinced me that he was right, and that his principle and mine are the same, although differently carried out. Therefore, although I can lay no claim to be the inventor of the " buffer knot," I can honestly say that I had never seen or heard of it before. * It is impossible to invent a better method of fastening gut together than that which makes the fastening the strongest instead of the weakest part of the casting line, and it is surprising to me that this method has not been adopted.' (Vide p. 194.) I am glad to see that this knot is at last being adopted, after being some twenty years before the angling public ; and though 'I say it that should not say it,' Major Traherne's frank testimony in favour of its superiority as applied to extra stout salmon casting lines (or for gut spinning traces where extra strength is required) does not go at all beyond the fact. If salmon fishers reading this chapter acquire nothing in return but the knowledge of this one apparently trifling piece of information, their time will not have been wasted. The difference between my original knot, as above described, and the variation of it alluded to by Major Traherne is very trifling ; such as it is, however, I am of opinion that as regards neatness and simplicity of manipulation my knot is distinctly preferable, and I have since had letters from Major Traherne saying that he had come to the same conclusion. Except for salmon, and then not when they run decidedly small, no lapping of any sort is required in any part of the casting line. The lapping that used to be applied at the tackle shops gives no additional strength whatsoever, whilst the effect is to exaggerate that which must always be a disfigurement. For casting lines of all kinds single gut, tapered, is the only material that I ever think of employing, and I find it quite strong enough when obtained of the best quality, Between the top of the casting line and bottom of the reelline, however, it will generally be found convenient always in the case of salmon lines to interpose a couple of feet or so of some thicker medium, and for this purpose twisted tapered gut ' points,' as they are called, with the lengths neatly spliced (not knotted) together, can now be obtained. The old-fashioned ' points ' made in separate lengths, and joined with a huge unsightly knot, are distinctly objectionable. This twisted 'intermediary' materially increases, I think, the ease and nicety of the cast in the case of both trout and salmon lines. The thick end of the twisted point should be neatly lapped on to the end of the reel-line, and is most conveniently terminated by a knot, as small as may be, which is attached to the loop of the gut casting line by a sort of modified 'jam,' readily admitting of detachment. For very light trout or grayling fishing, a few strands of stouter gut, tapered, may be substituted for the twisted point, the casting line being knotted on by the ordinary fisherman's knot, and cut apart at the end of the day, or where an extra finely tapered reelline is employed both gut and twist may be dispensed with. Staining All sorts of stains are recorded by different authors and adopted by different fishermen according to individual taste and fancy. I used personally to fancy what is known as the red water stain for rivers where the water took a darkish or porter-coloured tint after a fresh, and for ' white ' waters a light bluish or cloud colour. I am by no means clear, however, that in the case of the fly-fisher there is any sufficient FIG. 10. ATTACHMENT BETWEEN REEL-LINE AND CASTING LINK. Warranty for this nicety of refinement, if, indeed, it be a refinement at all in the proper sense of the word. When we see a porter-coloured water we forget that we are looking down from above, whilst the fish we wish to catch is, in all probability, looking up from below, and that our line being ' flotant ' is but a few inches below the surface of the water. The result is that when he comes up to take the fly the stratum of water interposed between the gut and the sky is really, when viewed by the human eye at any rate, almost colourless. It is the depth of water which produces the depth of colour. The same thing again applies to the clear streams which after a flood become merely slightly thickened with mud and never take the red or bog-water stain under any circumstances. In order as far as might be to satisfy my own mind as to what practically was the best stain, I arranged an experiment in which the actual conditions of the floating line were as nearly as possible reproduced substituting my own eye for that of the fish. A glass tank was obtained with a glass bottom, and I found that with about three inches of water in it the difference between water stained with tea or coffee to about the same extent as the red water of a river, or slightly clouded to represent the waters of a chalk stream, was, for practical purposes, /7, and, after trying various experiments, the general conclusion appeared to be that the stain which was most like the colour of the sky was the least visible ; also, that the very lightest stain was better than a dark one, and that in the case of perfectly sound clear gut no stain at all seemed practically to be required, as the negative colour, or rather approximate colourlessness, of the gut harmonised, on the whole, very well with most kinds of sky tint. Probably a light ink-and-water, or * slate,' stain is as good as any, taking one day with another. To produce it, mix boiling water and black ink, and soak the gut in it rinsing it thoroughly when it has attained the desired colour. This, indeed, is a precaution that should never be omitted in staining gut. Which is otherwise apt to lose its transparency. When too dark a stain has been given it may readily be reduced in intensity by soaking the gut in clean boiling water. For the common ' red water stain,' an infusion of tea leaves, boiled down until a teacupful of black tea in a quart of water becomes a pint, gives a nice clean transparent tint. Somebody once told me (or else I read somewhere) of a method of producing a particularly perfect red water stain whilst at the same time preserving the gut by using as the staining medium the leas of port wine ; and I stained a quantity of gut in this way to see if there was anything in the prescription. From a wine merchant a sufficient quantity two or three quarts of the leas was obtained, which were then put into a covered glazed iron pot and allowed to gently simmer on the hob for forty-eight hours, when the gut was taken out and thoroughly rinsed in tepid water. This was perhaps ten years ago, and I have some of that gut by me still. It is as ' tough as pin wire,' and possessed also of a curious propensity inconvenient to the wet, but interesting to the dry-fly fisher of being extraordinarily flotant. I know of no stain, however, not more or less detrimental to the gut itself, having the effect of really killing the glitter of new gut the fly-fisher's bete noir. But it struck me that as the gloss is soon taken off a gut cast after a few days' use, this result must be due to the friction of the water against the gut as it is drawn through ; and last year (1903), when at Loch Lomond, I took an opportunity for trying the experiment. I ' anchored,' so to say, a couple of new casting lines one stained and one unstained by a stone in the middle of a smart stream, and there left them. At the end of a week I found the gloss had to an important extent disappeared, whilst the gut itself remained quite ' unfrayed.' Possibly a longer experiment might produce still better results. Perhaps this ' discovery ' if I may so call it should prove of some practical interest to my brother fly-fishers. The length for the casting line, as proved by general experience to be the most convenient, is about three yards. In the case of salmon fishing with a second fly, or lake trout fishing with three flies and a double-handed rod, an extra foot making, say, ten feet in all is sometimes added, but it may be safely said that fifty 3-yard casting lines are made for one over that length. Where eyed flies are used, which have of course no separate link of gut belonging to them, the casting line becomes practically a link shorter. I rarely myself use more than two flies in trout or any other fishing except occasionally when experimenting on the best flies for a new water and therefore three yards is an ample allov/ance. Not that, as ' Box and Cox ' expresses it, I have any violent animosity or rooted antipathy ' to three flies, but that for ordinary purposes I find two preferable. Two flies can be cast better than three ; two flies can be ' worked ' better than three ; two flies are not so liable to entanglements as three ; and when they do get ' mixed ' the tangle is less inextricable. By ' working better,' what I mean is that whilst the upper dropper, which, a second or two after the cast is made, should hang clear of the line, and, barring the fly, nearly clear of the water also (and whilst the tail fly is of course always swimming clear), the lower or second dropper, by the action of drawing in the flies, gets of necessity more or less muddled up with the casting line (which the nose of a rising fish is very likely to strike), and cannot be worked, like the top dropper; cross-line or ' otter ' fashion, dribbling along, that is, amongst the ripples. The argument applies also to river fishing, though perhaps in a somewhat less degree inasmuch as the action of a current often nearly smooth does not lend itself so readily to the artistic working of the dropper as the streamless and generally wind-wrinkled surface of a lake. In lake fishing five feet, and three or four feet in river fishing, is probably about the best interval to allow between the dropper and stretcher or tail fly. The trailing gut and the stretcher act together as a sort of drag, or ' water-anchor,' enabling the drop-fly to be more artistically and effectively worked. Passing from the gut to the reel, or running line, I find so wide a field open before me that I despair of being able to do justice to the numberless different descriptions of lines, dressed and undressed, silk, hemp, hair, and what not, which compete for the fly-fisher's favour. When I served my apprenticeship to the craft almost everybody used a line composed of a mixture of silk and hair, and this has still some votaries left, amongst whom, however, I am decidedly not one. It had, in fact, only one good quality, lightness ; perhaps I should say half a good quality, because the lightness which is of advantage in the water is a great disadvantage in casting against the wind. For the rest, this silkand-hair line possesses pretty nearly every drawback that can well be combined. Hair by itself may be dismissed in a very few words. As contrasted with the silk mixture, it possesses its virtues in a greater and its faults in a minor degree. It is still more flotant in the water, where also it is much less visible, and it never gets rotten. But as a set-off the difficulty of casting against the wind and the friction in the rod-rings are, of course, exaggerated. On the whole, although I have used reel-lines entirely made of brown horsehair for trout fishing in calm and bright weather with considerable satisfaction, I decidedly prefer a dressed i.e. waterproofed line (lately much improved), which is suitable for windy as well as calm weather, and which with proper care will last quite long enough for all practical purposes. For salmon fishing, of course, lines made of hair or of silk and hair, would be put out of court on one ground alone, namely, a want of sufficient strength. With regard to the question of hemp or silk, there is nothing that makes a better, or perhaps as good, a ' back-line ' as hemp, but as it will not take oil dressing properly, it is unsuited for any other purpose. Silk lines, on the contrary, take the oil dressing, or waterproofing, perfectly, and admit afterwards of a smoothness and polish which facilitate very greatly the running out and the reeling in of the line, and should, therefore, always be preferred for every description of fishing with fly, float, bait, or worm. Dressed silk has moreover a ' driving ' ower in rough weather which cannot be got out of any undressed material. It is difficult to give a ' scale of sizes ' which will enable a particular thickness of line to be ordered by it from any particular tackle maker, as the scales published in the tackle makers' catalogues, etc., almost all differ descriptively or numerically. But, as it may be of convenience to my readers, I will with their permission take this opportunity of suggesting a uniform scale which possibly, in time, both tackle makers and line manufacturers may find it for their own and everybody else's comfort to adopt. (This scale is for un-tapered lines.) BADMINTON SCALE. No. I, only fit for trout worm-fishing or float-fishing ; No. 2, for very light 8 ft. Lady's fly-rod, and fine for that ; No. 3, suitable for a lady's ordinary 8 ft. Or for a light 10 ft. Rod ; No. 4, fit for an ordinary 10 or n ft. Trout rod ; No. 5, do. , stout ; Nos. 6 and 7, for grilse or light salmon rod ; No. 8, do. , slightly Stouter ; No. 9, medium stout salmon line ; No. 10, extra stout salmon line, It will be seen that the sizes in the preceding scale vary from that of an ordinary piece of stout sewing cotton almost to that of a knitting needle, so that everyone can without difficulty suit his particular objects and tastes. 1 Then comes the question : Shall the dressed silk line be 1 level ' that is, of equal substance throughout or ' tapered,' which means in ordinary parlance, getting finer towards the end at which the casting line is to be attached ? These tapered lines are also made * double tapered,' that is, the line is tapered at both ends. As between level and tapered lines, each has its advantages and its disadvantages, but, on the whole, I think nine fly-fishers out of ten prefer, in practice, a line more or less tapered towards the casting end. So far as the actual casting is concerned, apart from ' fine fishing,' these details are of little importance on quiet days, but in stormy weather, when the wind is blowing half a gale, perhaps right in the fly-fisher's teeth, the case is radically altered, and the man whose line is properly tapered and balanced and in weight exactly suited to his rod will be able to go on casting with comparative efficiency, while his neighbour, less perfectly equipped, may find his flies blown back in his face every other cast. The importance, to the salmon fisher especially, of a line which will cut its way through a fierce March squall has been so well recognised that in order to give greater ' cutting ' power line-makers have even gone to the extent of manufacturing reellines with wire centres. My friend Mr. W. Senior informed me that some he tried, made by Foster, of Ashbourne, answered exceedingly well. I have used them myself also, and in squally weather they certainly possess great * cutting ' power against or across the wind. 1 The art of dressing a line, whether for trolling or fly-fishing, is in itself a speciality, and one which few amateurs will probably find it worth taking the trouble to practice for themselves, but in case they should desire to become their own line dressers, they are advised to try the receipt given by Major Traherne, in his article on fishing for salmon with the fly, as the result of his experience on the best mode of dressing silk lines for fly-fishing. The line that seems to command the greatest number of suffrages is that referred to as the * double taper,' which for a salmon rod should have a medium length of from 30 to 40 yards, consisting of 7 or 8 yards of taper at each end, and the rest (the centre part) level. This line is equally good for a trouting rod, the proportions being of course adjusted. The quantity of line, clear of the rod-point, that can be continuously used with the maximum of effect in lake trout fishing with a ten-foot rod is, I find, about 1 8 or 20 feet or nearly twice the length of the rod -plus the casting line : i.e. 9 or 10 yards altogether. Deducting 3 yards for the casting line, this would leave 6 or 7 yards as the point in the reel-line at which the thickest point of the taper should be reached ; but I think I should say that, as a fact (pace the vendors of reel-lines), the most recent * fashion ' for the length of the taper at each end in a 3o-yard trouting line is from 5 to 6 yards. For a double-handed trout-rod, something between the proportions of a salmon line and those last-named are applicable. If a level (untapered) line be used, the interjection of 2 or 3 feet of twisted gut point an advantage in almost all cases will be found highly desirable, breaking as it does the otherwise abrupt transition from reel-line to gut. Dry-fly fishers, who generally use stiffer rods than common, have canons of their own on these questions, and the latest science of reel-lines for the floating fly will be found in Mr, F. M. Halford's able article. Let me, in quitting the subject, emphasize a parting caution : The thickness (and swell) of the line must absolutely be proportioned to the capacities of the rod if the most artistic results are to be obtained. A heavy line demands a stiff rod (and top), and, conversely, a light whippy rod with a fine top a line of corresponding lightness. A transposition of these conditions either way will produce failure. One other hint if a reel-line is not absolutely smooth, reject it unhesitatingly, no matter what its other qualifications may be. I know of lines admirably strong, capitally tapered, long wearing * conscientious ' lines in fact in every way but of which I would have none at any price. With such, every time you want to lengthen or shorten your cast there is friction on the rod-rings, and an impediment more or less to free passage ; in giving line to a fish, ditto (often the cause of losing it) whilst both in casting through the air and lifting out of the water, such a line entails at every cast of every day, from its ( cradle to its grave,' a certain small comparative disability, which to willingly subject oneself to is stupid, because wholly unnecessary. This naturally applies to any kind of line, dressed or undressed.
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