26 FLY RODS. 



It is essential to have at least three spare 

 top-joints to every fly-rod ; especially when 

 we stretch far away from the maker : for even if 

 an accident do not occur, a month's daily wear 

 must loosen the splicing. 



As some diversity of opinion prevails as to the 

 make of a top joint, some prefering it spliced, and 

 others of one entire piece, I must trouble you 

 with a few observations upon the subject. Let 

 me premise that I advocate the former, as, in my 

 pei^so?ial experience, none can play better or are 

 stronger, (as long as the splicing holds together), 

 than such as are made according to the London 

 fashion. The stoutest piece next to the upper 

 *' joint" in these, is lance-wood ; then, come two 

 or three pieces of East Indian bamboo split out 

 of a thick stock : and^lastly, a splice of whale- 

 bone, forms the point or tip of the rod. The 

 advocates for solid tops imagine " that the 

 different kinds of wood cause a varied and im- 

 proper degree of pliancy to the whole rod ; and 

 they especially object that the whalebone tip 

 gives too much weight to that part. Now the 

 only objection that I have ever found to spliced 

 tops, is that they occasionally get out of order by 

 the glue at the joints giving way. A trifling 

 annual expence, however, (if we are not ourselves 

 clever enough to perform the reparation), in 

 addition to the yearly coat of varnish, which 



