RODS. 75 



in practice in fact, I am satisfied most casts with the salmon 

 fly will, if measured, be found to be nearer twenty than thirty 

 yards. 1 There are, of course, some rivers, and, perhaps, some 

 casts here and there on most salmon rivers, where a longer rod 

 would enable some favourable point otherwise inaccessible to 

 be reached, but when this cannot be done by wading I am 

 content to put up with the loss of an occasional good cast in 

 exchange for the constant comfort and convenience which 1 

 find in a rod of the proportions indicated. 



It is all very well to talk lightly of casting forty yards, and 

 so forth, with a twenty-foot Castle Connell, but the man who 

 wishes to do it, and to go on doing it, must be of stronger 

 build or greater height than the ordinary run of mortals. I 

 think very little of these ' casting competitions ' we read of (for 

 the most part between professionals), carried out under artificial 

 conditions quite different from those which obtain in real 

 fishing. 



It should be borne in mind as a mechanical axiom in this 

 matter of the length of rod, that exactly in proportion as you 

 gain in casting power by the increased leverage, so (the motive 

 force being equal) do you lose in the propelling power by which 

 only the leverage can be utilised the practical deduction from 

 which proposition is that every man has a length of rod exactly 

 proportioned to his physical strength a rod out of which, that 

 is, he can get the maximum of casting force compatible with 

 sustained muscular effort and it should be his object to 

 ascertain what that length is. A shorter and more powerful 

 rod might in many cases be substituted with advantage for a 

 longer and more ' floppy ' weapon, and this principle has been 

 carried out by Farlow in a 13 ft. 6 in. greenheart salmon rod 

 made according to my instructions. With this rod I get plenty 

 of power and excellent casting. I once had, on the lawn at 

 Recess, Ballynahinch, an impromptu casting trial with this rod 

 against Major Traherne with his ordinary salmon rod I think 



1 I fully agree. An ordinary fly-fisher seldom casts more than twenty 

 yards properly. BEAUFORT. 



