RODS. 8 1 



angling : I mean the question of the Rod varnish. I take small 

 interest in the question of the varnish itself except as bearing 

 on that most important subject, the glittering of the rod. 

 This, from a practical point of view, can hardly be insisted on 

 too strongly ; as in bright weather and more or less in all 

 weathers a glittering appearance in the rod acts as a sort of 

 beacon light to warn off the rising fish. Also it accounts for a 

 great deal of what is technically known as the fish ' coming 

 short,' or ' rising short.' 



In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. 



Last year (1903), when loch fishing, I could plainly see at 

 a mile off my ghillie said two miles the rod of a neighbour 

 flashing backwards and forwards in the sunshine, like a sort 

 of peripatetic lightning-conductor. I have had my own rods 

 * stripped,' and all the varnish absolutely taken off even the 

 ferrules and the lappings x of the rod-rings are dulled. Messrs. 

 Foster make a 'modified' varnish or rather varnishes in- 

 tended to effect the object, which, to some extent only, they do 

 the dark green the most ; but with three actual rod-joints 

 before me, two of them dressed with these varnishes, and one 

 with no varnish at all it is any odds on the last. Tackle- 

 makers may say that rods without some sort of varnish or 

 polish will not stand wet. When I have lived long enough 

 to prove by my own experience the truth of the opinion, I 

 shall be prepared to admit it. Meanwhile, I have no doubt 

 my rods will last quite as long as I want, and, if not, so 

 much the better for the rod makers ! 



Until the Fisheries Exhibition of 1883 called forth, or called 

 into public notice, these inventions, joint fastenings may be 

 said, so far as any general adoption of them is concerned, to have 

 been comprised in three categories. The first, the ordinary 

 ferrule joint, in which one joint slips into the other and it 

 may be added, out of it again with considerable regularity 



1 I have my rod-rings lapped on with thick sewing silk to match the wood, 

 Fine silk, unvarnished, soon wears through, 



I. G 



