That vitally important bit of fishing tackle consisting of the short piece of line that connects your main line to your hook, and the bits and bobs that you attatch to that piece of line, is called your 'terminal tackle'.
A great many changes have taken place over the years in materials used for this bit of line, all of them for the better.
In the days when silk main lines on the reel were expensive and inefficient because they deteriorated quickly, terminal tackle was even more inefficient.
Anglers either used what we call 'hook lengths' made out of silkworm gut that was only available in very short pieces that had to be knotted together and needed to be soaked before it was fit for use.
Those of us who could not afford the expensive silkworm gut traces had to use very inferior so-called gut substitute.
The arrival of man-made monofilament made in England by ICI was a great step forward though the new nylon could only be had in short lengths so it was not available for main line on the reel.
It was thick and wiry and nor reliable when nnots were tied in it.
Since then various monofilaments have been manufactured including not only vastly superior nylon lines but polimers and fluorocarbon lines that are said to be difficult for fish to detect under water.
Modern monofilament lines can be bought in floating or sinking varieties and so-called super lines with amazingly low diameters compared to their breaking strain.
Now anglers can buy hooks already tied to the monofilament and lines to tie their own terminal tackles.
I have mentioned all of this to bring home to younger anglers just how efficient modern tackle is and how low in price compared to the pre-war gear that we had to make do with. And wouldn't you know it, some specialist anglers are now using braided man-made lines again because these have hardly any stretch and are very fine in diameter and very supple.
How I wish that most parts of my old body could be brought up to scratch the same way!