ROD TAPERS AND ROD PLOTTING 97 



The reader might be interested to learn what 

 analysis of the lines of some of the best professional- 

 made rods would reveal as to tapers. We are 

 pleased that we can satisfy this very natural curios- 

 ity. The rods that the author calipered, at every 

 foot throughout their lengths, are respectively the 

 most famous American and British makes. The 

 former is eight feet long and weighs three and one- 

 half ounces; the latter is nine and one-half feet and 

 weighs six and one-quarter ounces (a dry-fly rod). 

 Each five-eighths of an inch in length of the diagram 

 represents one foot of rod-length. The actual diam- 

 eters that the rods calipered at each foot of their 

 individual lengths are indicated by the figures in 

 fractions of an inch. By multiplying these by four 

 (in the original drawing), we obtained in an 

 exaggerated form, for easier perception the 

 widths which, connected by the solid longitudinal 

 lines, give the lines of the rods; and these may be 

 compared with the dotted lines in the diagram, 

 which represent straight-tapered rods. 



Another clue to some of the underlying principles 

 of successful rod-construction is furnished by noting 

 the point of balance where the rod will balance 

 when held at one point horizontally, as across the 

 finger in some of the highest-grade productions. 

 In two famous makes of American rods, tested with- 

 out attached reel, Mr. Charles Zibeon Southard 

 gives these figures: 31 inches from the butt end of 



