EQUIPMENT FOR SOUTH AFRICA 221 



England with the newer method impels me not 

 to omit it from South African plans. 



In concluding my thoughts on rod-buying 

 they are not meant for the experienced angler, 

 who knows all about these things I would 

 earnestly say : See that rod, reel, and line all 

 balance. In buying your fly-rod, get one with 

 a cork handle, with a good spike for the end of 

 the butt, and be sure that the stoppers are there. 

 Sentiment, pure sentiment, is at the bottom of 

 this last piece of advice. An authority, for whose 

 opinion on any piscatorial subject the angling 

 world has regard, once showed me his favourite 

 fly-rod. Its workmanship seemed perfect. It 

 must have been a costly rod. But the stoppers 

 were missing ! In a fashionable fishing-tackle 

 shop in London the other day, one of the 

 assistants took down a rod-case, extracted the 

 rod, and joy ! began to remove the stoppers. 

 He must have been amused at my request : " Oh, 

 do put those stoppers back, and then take them 

 out again, please /" The sound of rod-stoppers 

 being removed is like that lovely, spontaneous 

 bark of laughter when, a humorist having told a 

 joke perfectly, the audience, as one man, explodes 

 with laughter. When you go a-fishing always 

 put the stoppers in your right-hand trousers 

 pocket. If you prefer it, you can put them in 

 your hat or underneath your socks fishing is a 

 go-as-you-please game. But, if you have put 

 them in your right-hand trousers pocket, they are 

 always there when you wind up and are preparing 



