ROD TAPERS AND ROD PLOTTING 107 



angling. The figures given are subject to some 

 slight changes owing to the varying weights of dif- 

 ferent samples of bamboo-cane, and to differences in 

 the windings and metal fittings of completed rods. 

 The style of handgrasp and whether a rod is fitted 

 with metal (solid) reelseat or simple reel-bands 

 (skeleton reelseat) also are important modi- 

 fying factors of the total weight. According 

 to the rules of tournament casting, three-quar- 

 ters of an ounce may be deducted from the total 

 weight either for a solid reelseat or for the extra 

 pair of ferrules necessitated with the independent 

 grasp. Keeping these qualifications in mind, we may 

 make the general statement that fly-rods for trout 

 and bass fishing range from eight feet in length and 

 weighing four ounces, to eleven feet with a weight 

 of nine ounces; though a ten-foot rod weighing seven 

 ounces, or not much more, will, except in rare in- 

 stances, be the advisable extreme for heavy rods of 

 this class. For bass fishing, we recommend nothing 

 under nine feet, and weighing six ounces or five 

 and one-half at the very least. An 8%-foot rod 

 ordinarily weighs about 4% ounces; one of 9% feet, 

 6 ounces; and of io/ feet, 8 ounces. Rods are 

 made to weigh much under these figures; split-bam- 

 boos have been constructed, from seven to eight 

 feet in length, that would scale one and three-quar- 

 ters ounces perchance even less, for all we know. 

 It hardly is necessary to state that such phenomenally 



