HOW TO USE IT. 3 



a rod is too long, or too heavy, it is impossible 

 that it can be used skilfully. Salmon rods 

 should always be made of the best materials: 

 the butt of a good salmon rod is usually of 

 ash, the middle pieces hickory, and the tops 

 bamboo cane. It should also be furnished with 

 a flat rounded nut, or wooden cap, like the 

 truck of a boat's mast; because it is often 

 necessary for the fisher, when working the fly 

 through the water, to rest or press the butt end 

 of the rod against his stomach or hip, parti- 

 cularly if it be a two-handed rod. But it 

 should be observed of two-handed rods, that 

 they cannot be used with the same accuracy 

 in throwing and dropping the fly as single- 

 handed rods. 



The trout, or light fly rod, is generally from 

 12 to 14 feet in length, and tapering gradually 

 in size from end to end. The play of the rod 

 does not always depend so much on the flexi- 

 bility of the materials as the regularity or 

 symmetry of its taper, which assists the thrower 

 in the mechanical action necessarily required 

 in delivering the fly precisely, and to the 

 fullest extent. 



Trout fly rods should be made of hickory, or 



