The originator of this effect, in which a selected card is magically fished from a hat or bag on a piece of ribbon or rope, is Stuart Robson. His “The Card Angler” appeared in The Jinx, No. 35, Aug. 1937, p. 233. In Germany, Werry Geissler put out a version called “Schlangenseil” in 1954. While Robson used sticky tape to attach the card to the rope, Werry had the card already tied to a short piece of rope in the hat, which was then secretly attached by a magnet to a longer rope. In this version by Werry, the rope appeared to knot itself magically around the card rather than just sticking to it.