FISHING TACKLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 447 



as an Ariel's wand, during the boisterous days of winter, 

 and by its means, through many years, to gently force 

 thousands of fish to your creel, is to create a friend and 

 servant around which will cluster associations of jeweled 

 luster. Nay, will not such a weapon, in the sportsman's 

 sanctum, often and often, as he glances through the smoke 

 of his evening pipe, bring tears to his eyes, recalling from 

 shadow-land "the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of 

 a voice that is still?" Odds and ends of tackle are strewn 

 around me on the table even as I write. Some are suggestive 

 of friends scattered over this broad fair land others of good 

 anglers and true across the ocean; and dearest of all are 

 those mementos of him to whom I owe all of the enthusiasm, 

 and skill, as a practical fisherman, I possess. He it was who 

 taught me to tie a hook at five years of age, and catch a 

 three-pound trout soon after; and who has now passed to 

 where, "beyond these voices there is peace" my father. 

 Such associations are inexpressibly welcome to the angler, 

 but they are practically unknown to the dilettante fisherman. 

 Of a verity, "It is not all of fishing to fish." 



In the following paper I purpose giving (i) my deliberate 

 selection as to the most suitable tackle for angling of all 

 kinds, (2) and explanations of its materials and methods of 

 amateur manufacture. Of course my opinion is but that of 

 an individual, and doubtless good anglers and true will differ 

 from me ; but it will be an honest one, and in matters of fact 

 I shall state what I know. Not one assertion will be found 

 that depends on the experience of someone else. Thirty- 

 years in the midst of fishing and tackle, in two hemis- 

 pheres, should have taught me enough to set me up in expe- 

 rience of my own. At any rate I am willing to stand by what 

 appears in this chapter, and to the end that it may be of the 

 utmost utility to the tyro, it has been boiled down to an 

 intense concentration and terse practicality. 



