88 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



The thickness of leaders habitually used at the Range- 

 ly Lakes is simply preposterous. Heavier would not be 

 selected for a forty-pound salmon. 



Among other reasons, these conclusions rest partly on 

 the following : 



In June, 1883, with some other anglers I was in camp 

 in the Maine woods. The conversation turned on this 

 subject, and having seen the experiment tried, I said 

 that the strain of any trout could not by possibility 

 much exceed a pound. This statement was regarded by 

 some with so much surprise, that a trial was suggested. 

 A ten-foot hexagonal split-bamboo rod of my own make, 

 and quite stiff for a fly-rod, was used. Drawing with 

 this upon a spring-balance following up the bend of the 

 rod as a fish would do, with the hand holding the rod 

 and its butt away from the body, the strongest among the 

 half dozen, and he a man of muscle, could with his ut- 

 most effort such an effort that the rod fairly quivered 

 scarcely raise a strain of one and a quarter pounds. 

 He had caught many large fish, and frankly admitted 

 that he had never exerted any such force as that. We 

 all tried it, I among the number. The very next morn- 

 ing I took a trout which weighed five pounds and two 

 ounces, after a twenty minutes' fight. During this I 

 constantly had in mind the experiment of the preced- 

 ing evening, and I am confident that at no time did his 

 pull exceed half a pound. This was, however, in still 

 water. 



During September of the same year a friend, using 

 quite a fine leader tested to four and a half pounds, fast- 

 ened a trout in still water but in a very dangerous 

 place. Not only did he hold him without yielding an 

 inch of line, but hung to him till his guide took the boat 



