144 Wet-Fly Fishing 



I think when one is, after many years of 

 faithful adherence to his own rod-maker, 

 recommending him to others, he should 

 deposit his favourite rod, till a pattern 

 in the rough is built, and registered. In 

 this way alone can a satisfactory result be 

 arrived at, and this, I may add, has been 

 done in the case of "The Tod Rod," in 

 Messrs. Forrests' catalogue. It gives an 

 idea at once, of the style of weapon used 

 and recommended by " Mr. Tod," which is 

 an important matter to the would-be pur- 

 chaser. There is another thing (and here 

 I will have all the rod-makers with me !) 

 when a beginner has purchased a rod, he 

 cannot be expected to use it properly at 

 first, and he is very apt to hand it to others^ 

 in order to obtain their opinion. In time 

 he gets so many, and, I may add, such 

 contradictory opinions given to him, that 

 at last he begins to hate the very sight of 

 that rod ! Accept a story from real life. 



A young man, aged twenty-one, who 

 was already able to throw a good line, 

 hearing the fame of a local Scottish rod- 

 maker in the county where he happened to 

 be residing at the time, went to his shop 

 one market-day, in the month of April, 

 1880. There he ordered a fly-rod. To his 



