TROUT FLY-FISHING. 309 



spliced bamboo. The manner of making tips of this kind 

 is explained in an article on "Eod Making," found in a 

 subsequent chapter. The tip would be as efficient, though 

 not so stiff, if twelve or eighteen inches of the stouter part 

 were of the same wood as the middle joint. 



The groove which holds the reel should be below the place 

 where the rod is grasped by the hand. I prefer its extending 

 beneath the ferule at the extreme butt ; the " balance" of the 

 rod is thus thrown nearer the hand, and its weight " out- 

 board" — to use a nautical phrase — is reduced, and the fatigue 

 of the wrist and forearm in casting is thus lessened, or 

 scarcely felt. 



To avoid the difficulty of taking off the reel, which so 

 oflen occurs from the swelling of the wood, and the conse- 

 quent tightening of the reel -bands, I have adopted the plan 

 of having no sliding band, but to secure one end of the strip 

 to which the reel is fastened by slipping it under the butt 

 ferule, and binding down the other end with a neat braid or 

 buckskin string, three or four turns being sufficient to hold 

 it tight. 



To provide also against a similar inconvenience, I make 

 each joint of my fly-rods without the usual wooden socket at 

 the lower end of the outside ferule, and consequently without 

 any projection of the wood below the end of the male ferule, 

 which fits into it ; for the reason that wood will swell on 

 becoming damp, and the plug — if I may so call it — expand- 

 ing inside the wooden socket, will stick fast ; and the angler 

 is under the necessity of taking his rod home unjointed, 

 or doing some violence to the ferules. 



In fly-rods, the ferules which join the different pieces 

 together are generally unnecessarily long, and interfere with 

 the play and spring of the rod. There is no necessity for 

 having the ferule which joins the middle piece to the butt 

 more than two inches long, and that which joins the middle 



