162 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



It must be admitted that many excellent anglers prefer 

 a " top-heavy " rod one weak in the middle joint. They 

 say it casts more easily. This may be, doubtless is, true 

 as far as they are concerned, for habit will reconcile man 

 to anything except the toothache. But that a beginner 

 will find this so may well be questioned. Conceding, 

 however, this point, there is no other one thing which a 

 fly-rod should do, in which such a rod is not at a disad- 

 vantage. It is neither so sure on the strike, nor so cer- 

 tain in the hold. It will not begin to give the angler the 

 same all - important control of a heavy fish; while the 

 curve it assumes under strain, instead of being a thing 

 of beauty, is an eyesore to every one but its infatuated 

 owner. It is as sightly as a broken-backed steamboat, 

 and not a whit more so. 



For a twelve-foot fly-rod, half an inch in diameter at 

 the point where the taper begins is quite sufficient. For 

 a rod of ten and a half feet, fifteen thirty - seconds of 

 an inch is ample. Start then with this, and procure the 

 ferrule, to be placed immediately above the handle, of a 

 corresponding size. Should you find the butt joint too 

 stiff when the rod is together, you can reduce it by a 

 sudden taper immediately above the ferrule. 



Now lay out your work, thus : Take a smooth pine 

 board, say four feet long. Mark the diameter of the in- 

 side of your butt ferrule at one end, and of the small 

 end of your tip at the other, separated by a distance in 

 inches easily divisible as shown in the illustration on the 

 opposite page (Fig. 34). 



Length of rod 10 feet 6 inches, equals 126 inches ; less 

 length of handle, 10 inches, equals 116 inches; divide 

 this into a number of equal parts 13 will answer well 

 making each division bear the same proportion to the 



