NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Under this Department Heading queries relative to Angling, Ichthyology and Fish Culture 



will be answered.] 



Words from a Rod Crank. 



Every fisherman is more or less of a crank 

 about some part of his tackle. One is wedded 

 to a certain make of reel; another swears by 

 certain flies, while his neighbor fishing the 

 same stream is equally enamored of some other 

 variety, and so it goes through the whole range 

 of tackle. I have lately become a rod crank — 

 a great big long handled, open eyed one. 



This past season I branched out and used a 

 variety of rods. The result is that I have gone 

 back to my first love — the lancewood — and I 

 now propose to tell why I prefer this rod to 

 others. 



A great many will ask, " What is the matter 

 with a high grade split bamboo ?" The highest 

 grade split bamboo rods are very fine indeed — 

 their appearance is beautiful and their casting 

 qualities unsurpassed, but for me there is a 

 fatal objection. All anglers know with what 

 delicacy, the fly casting rod especially, has to 

 be made. The tip must be long, slender and 

 tapering, and all first class ones, whether of 

 wood or bamboo, possess a wonderful degree 

 of strength compared with their weight and 

 bulk, yet they can be broken as we well know. 

 The wonder is that more of them are not broken. 

 Every angler occasionally breaks a tip, and in 

 quite a long experience I can say that about 

 ninety per cent, of these breaks occur just 

 above the ferrule. When this happens to a rod, 

 the ferrule must be at once refitted or the tip 

 trimmed down and thrust into the ferrule of 

 the middle joint, if one is on a stream and 

 wishes to continue fishing. Just here the bam- 

 boo shows its great point of weakness. Once 

 the enamel or outer surface of the bamboo is 

 removed to refit the ferrule or to allow it to be 

 thrust into the middle joint, it is rendered 

 practically worthless and will, thereafter, break 

 upon the slightest provocation. Nearly the 

 whole strength of a bamboo rod seems to lie in 

 its hard outer surface, this once broken the rod 

 is useless. 



Now we turn to lancewood, greenhart, betha- 

 bara, or any first class rod- wood, lancewood 

 being my preference, and under the same con- 



ditions what is the result ? Once broken at the 

 top of the ferrule, five minute's work with a 

 knife and it can be slipped into the ferrule of 

 the middle joint, and you can be fishing as 

 though nothing had happened. Upon return- 

 ing to camp or home a permanent repair can 

 then be effected. 



Thank fortune an experienced angler seldom 

 breaks a tip, but when he does — which always 

 happens sooner or later — he is in position to 

 make a quick repair and suffer but little diminu- 

 tion of his day's sport, if he uses a lancewood. 



To remove a tip that has been thrust into the 

 middle joint, without its ferrule, burn a match 

 around the ferrule of the middle joint and it 

 can then be easily withdrawn. 



The casting qualities of a lancewood rod, 

 made of selected wood by a reputable maker, 

 are as near perfection as any one can wish. 

 I have found cheap rods of this wood, rods 

 that retail for $2.50 and $3.00, of excellent 

 quality and good casting. W. C. Kepler. 



The Golden Trout of Whitney Creek, Cal. 



In making preparations for an extended trip 

 in the Spring with Mr. Petrie, the artist, to the 

 Texan coast. Lower California and Alaska, for 

 the purpose of completing the series (80) of fish 

 portraits for our work on " The Fishes of North 

 America," it has been our pleasing experience 

 to be in correspondence with many accom- 

 plished anglers and students of the life 

 histories of the fishes of the section above 

 named. In this connection we have recently 

 received a private letter from Mr. J. A. Graves, 

 of Los Angeles, Cal., which we assume the 

 privilege of giving to our readers, because it is 

 full of interesting notes on the Golden Trout 

 of Whitney Creek, and because it shows how 

 strong the universal sympathy is for an angler 

 engaged in such work as has occupied us for 

 so many years. Mr. Graves, whom we expect 

 to thank and greet for the first time in May 

 next, writes us: 



"In looking over your work last night, I 

 thought I would make the suggestion to you 

 that vou should not close it without obtaining 



