Fishing the Pool 101 



manner what may be useful information to some, 

 and the reverse to others, is of course a skilful and 

 experienced angler, absolutely free from prejudice, 

 and tolerant of dissentient views. He is pro- 

 vided with a fifteen-foot Forrest rod with standing 

 rings, a Farlow tension reel holding sixty yards of 

 Olinea line, having spliced to it seventy-five yards 

 of Cuttyhunk thin bass line, a casting line tested 

 to seven pounds, a book filled with flies of all 

 kinds and sizes, from the veterans with honorable 

 records of former years, and still fit for service, the 

 cripples with parts of their dressing gone, or loops 

 frayed and unsafe, all of which should have been 

 thrown away long since, the dozens of flies never 

 used and probably never to be used, as one or two 

 trials of their kind have been fruitless, to the com- 

 paratively small number of pet patterns on which 

 he pins his faith, all tied on turned-down-eyed 

 hooks. These implements are put in the canoe 

 along with a gaff whipped to a light spruce pole 

 seven or eight feet long, a small, round, flat tin box 

 in which repose, between two pieces of wetted 

 thick flannel, a couple of fresh casts, and a sharp- 

 pointed bodkin, one of the most useful utensils of 

 the angler for taking out knots in a casting line 

 and loosening it from the fly. 



