28 FLY-FISHING. 



must be strong, to enable you with safety to throw to 

 any great distance, when using a bait of three quar- 

 ters of a pound weight, say ten feet four inches long : 

 but the length of the rod must depend in a great mea- 

 sure upon the width of the water you fish. It may 

 consist of either two or three joints, as may be consi- 

 dered most convenient. When three joints are used, 

 the top joint should not be longer than two feet two 

 and a half inches, including the part that goes into 

 the ferrule, and the top of this joint should be one 

 inch and three eighths in circumference. This is the 

 only joint that will require a ring, which must be pla- 

 ced on the top of it, as in plate 5, fig. ] . The ring 

 is made thus : take a piece of stout brass, as in plate 

 5, fig. 4 ; then get a brass wheel cut sufficiently deep 

 (fig 5) to form a circle with the upper part of fig. 4, 

 when fixed to it, as in fig. 3. Now fasten on the back 

 of this ring a plate of brass (fig. 6), as is shown at 

 fig. 7, which will enable you to whip it firmly to the 

 top of your rod. If you use a ring without a wheel 

 in it, the friction caused by the line running rapidly 

 through it will soon wear the ring into grooves, and 

 these grooves will cut your line. The diameter of the 



