Suppose that a joint of the rod has broken with a slanting break. It may be that the surfaces can be fitted together neatly. In this case they may be joined at once, but if any part has been lost or broken away, then the broken surfaces must be trimmed and smoothed with the knife until they do fit. They are spliced thus: Rub the surfaces with your shoemaker’s wax, press them together, and if you cannot easily hold them, tie them temporarily with a piece of string, or perhaps still better, make open coils over the joined parts as at A in Fig. 4. Then wind back over these coils and the joined parts, making close, snug coils just as you did on the hook. The whip-finish must be managed a little differently. Fig. 5 shows how this is done. When ready to finish drop a loop and make four or five loose turns. Carry the end under the beginning of the loop, wind down the loose coils firmly, and pull the end through as before.
A lost tip-ring or guide-ring can be made good by a piece of wire bent into proper shape and whipped on with well waxed silk thread.
We need say but a few words about knots. In order to knot your gut it must be first softened, which is done by laying it in water; it softens much more rapidly in lukewarm water than in cold. Two lengths of gut are joined together by lapping the end of one by the end of the other and making a knot in both together. Fig. 6 A shows this knot, only the end is put through twice for greater security. If the fishing is such as does not need strong tackle a single knot will suffice.
A loop at the end of a piece of gut is made by making the knot as at B, which is the commonly used knot.
A better knot is that shown at C, which looks complicated as drawn, but really is not so, as in tying it the two loops a and b are made, the end c laid between them, and then b is drawn through a.
D shows the ordinary simple method of fastening a line to the loop of a leader or of a snell. It is the “becket hitch” of the seaman. It explains itself. Its great advantage is that it cannot slip if drawn down snugly and can be instantly loosened by pushing the main line back a little way.
Aids for Young Anglers
How often has it happened that on reaching a camping-ground, hotel, or boarding-house near river or lake where pickerel, bass, and large perch abounded no provision is found for the angler’s sport but a boat—no lines, sinkers, or floats; no nets for catching live bait, and no bait but worms. For sunfish, catfish, and small perch, worms are very fair bait; but for pickerel, bass, and large perch live bait is best. Here are some makeshifts and aids that may be gotten up at short notice and at small expense.
Fig. 7 is an end-section of a mosquito-net seine for taking live bait. The length of the seine is thirty-eight feet, depth five feet. The “cork-line” A A consists of a small-sized clothes-line. Corks not always being obtainable, I have used pieces of thoroughly seasoned white pine three inches in length and one inch in diameter (C C C). Through these rounded pieces of wood holes are bored through which the clothes-line passes. These floats are placed eight inches apart and are kept in position by the clothes-line fitting tightly in the holes. At the bottom of the seine another clothes-line is sewed to the netting (B B). This is called the “lead line” and is for the purpose of keeping the lower part of the seine close to the bottom of the water. In the lead line pieces of sheet-lead one inch in length are fastened (H H H) twenty-eight inches apart. The “staff” D is a well-seasoned piece of hickory six feet long, to the lower end of which sheet-lead is also fastened at E to keep it down. To the staff is attached the staff line F F F, thirty feet long, which is for the purpose of drawing in the seine after it has been cast.