30 HOLLOW BL^TS. 



fourteen ounces is not likely to fatigue, (by the 

 difference of weight in ash and willow), in the 

 few hours of fishing. 



As to the comparative strength of ash and 

 willow, the former bears the palm beyond a 

 doubt ; and if you attempt to throw thirty yards 

 of line against wind with a willow wand, all I 

 can say is, were I in your place, I should like to 

 have a spare ash staff at hand ! What muscular 

 strength is requisite to wield a trout rod ? No 

 muscular exertion ought to be called forth, in 

 trout fishing at least, otherwise something else is 

 surely defective. For myself, I can say, that I 

 have fished from five in the morning till nine 

 o'clock in the evening, the greater part of the 

 day against a strong wind, with my single handed 

 trout-rod, — measuring fourteen feet, three inches, 

 and a half, and weighing one pound two 

 ounces, and generally throwing from twenty to 

 thirty yards of line, and never experienced any 

 trouble from its weight, or the exertion required 

 for its free use. 



Hollow Buts. — I do not advise any one to 

 have a hollow but. To be sure it is often re- 

 commended as being less heavy ; yet, as I have 

 already stated, weight in that portion of the rod 

 is no disadvantage, but rather assists in the 

 facility of recovering a rod to its perpendicular, 

 when fishing. Nor can a hollow, by possibility, 



