22 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



their lakes and rivers with delicate weapons of 8 and 

 9 feet. 



In Scotland and Ireland, where the best of our salmon 

 fishing is, you may still meet with anglers who will 

 have no rod under 18 or 20 feet. Only big strong 

 men accustomed to it can wield an implement of this 

 calibre through a hard day's casting without extreme 

 .fatigue. They have a sound justification for their choice 

 on such streams as Tweed, Dee, and Spey, where the 

 pools are of the major size and the getting out of a 

 long line is a necessity. They are not on such sure 

 ground when they urge that a heavy salmon can only 

 be landed by a rod of maximum dimensions. I saw a 

 friend last autumn produce a 1 5-foot greenheart rod 

 on Tweedside. The gillies shook their heads incredu- 

 lously at the innovation, but honestly unlearned what 

 they had always believed to be infallible dogma when 

 he killed his twenty-three pound fish as quickly and 

 safely as if the cause had been the 1 8-foot rod which 

 they had implored him to substitute for his most un- 

 orthodox concern. It is true that there are " catches " 

 which can only be covered by long rods, with their un- 

 doubted advantages in sending out the fly, picking the 

 line off the water, and settling a fish with the promptest 

 dispatch. 



The young salmon-fisher should learn to handle a 

 rod that is sufficient for his height and strength and no 

 more. For ordinary purposes 17 feet of greenheart or 

 split-cane are ample, and the modern salmon angler has 

 come to look upon even this which our forefathers 

 would have pooh-poohed as a mere grilse-rod as ex- 

 cessive. The secret of comfortable and successful 

 angling, as an exercise no less than as a sport, is in 

 the choice of a rod. Some men seem to be unable to 

 make the right selection ; they seem to lack the cor- 



