



presented to me in 1874 and is still in good condition. This is partly due to my 

 excellent care of the pole, and partly because I have never used it. 



The best rod is the split bamboo. A young angler may purchase an ordi- 

 nary bamboo and got an industrious pickerel or cat-fish to split it for him, but 

 the result is not generally satisfactory. If you are sole owner or lessee of a 

 first-class split bamboo rod, do not abuse it. It was not intended by nature to 

 welt a mule with, nor to push a flat-bottomed boat off the mud, and when 

 stepped on or sat down upon, it has a way of looking up at you with $30 worth 

 of mute reproach in its German-silver eyes which is very saddening to the true 

 sportsman. 



A fine rod is not designed to be used as a derrick. Many a young angler 

 has lost his salvation by attempting to hoist a four-pound mud-turtle from the 

 watef with a seven-ounce expensive rod. 



It may as well be stated right here that the all-round rod, warranted to take 

 anything from a six-foot tarpon to a four-inch bullhead, is a dismal failure. 

 The best tarpon rods are one size too large for bullheads, and the best bullhead 

 rods are seven sizes too small for tarpon; but when a cast-iron rake is fastened 

 to the "general," all-round rod, it is useful in skittering for clams. 



The young angler who buys one first-class rod and handles it as tenderly as 

 though it were a boil, is $64 richer than the man who fritters away his substance 

 buying cheap but glittering poles. A man may split kindling-wood in a far less 

 expensive manner than by fishing with the kind of rod that has nickel-plated 

 ferrules and comes in a long, narrow paper bag. 



The Reel 



When the young angler has saved up money for several years and owns a 

 good rod, he then should struggle to become possessor of a good reel. 



A good reel is more valuable to a true sportsman, as a friend, than a small, 

 rough-haired yellow dog. 



Reels are of several kinds. There is the click reel, the multiplying reel, the 

 Kentucky reel and the Virginia reel. Some reels are simple and some are com- 

 plicated. The most complicated reel I ever saw was owned by a man who was 

 coming home at 2 A. M., after a prolonged struggle with a demijohn of Monon- 

 gahela at a wake. 



There are nickel-plated man-traps sold under the name of reels which have 

 caught more good citizens, and ruined them for life, than have been caught by 

 the gallows. There is nothing sadder in this vale of tears than to see a strong, 

 once happy man sitting down in his boat at 4 P. M., when the bass are biting at 

 their best, trying to wind a reel upon which he thought he had saved $4, but 

 which has broken four brass teeth and a crank in the effort to say "Biz-z-z-z!" 



A click reel is only used upon a fly-rod. It makes a noise like winding up a 

 kitchen clock, and from this simple but vicious habit it derives its name. 



A multiplying reel is one which winds up the line several times faster than 

 the crank turns. The multiplying reel is to be used in casting a minnow or a 

 deeply pained bullfrog out upoa the waters, and a reel which multiplies twice 

 is preferred by the angler and is just the same to the frog. 



