18 THE THAMES ANGLER. 



trolling hooks on wire or gimp, for the gorge ; snap-hooks ; gut 

 spinning tackle ; gimp and gut traces, with swivels ; hooks tied 

 on gimp, from Nos. 2 to 7; hooks tied on gut, from 2 to 12; 

 ditto on hair, from 10 to 13; loose hooks ; paternosters for perch 

 fishing ; floats of different sizes ; leads for plumbing ; ledgers, 

 paternosters, traces, and bullets with holes in them; split shot, 

 and float-caps ; landing-net and gaff; clearing-ring, gentle-box, 

 bran-bag and worm-bags ; live-bait kettle ; fishing book, fitted 

 with a winder, pair of pliers, scissors, knife, disgorger, baiting- 

 needle, India-rubber, cobblers' wax, sewing silk, string; basket; 

 bait for the fish, and food for yourself. 



Having now given a list of the angler's requisites, it will be 

 necessary to speak of some of these articles in detail, and I will 

 begin with 



RODS. 



I shall not adopt the conventional plan of instructing my 

 readers at what season of the year they should enter a wood and 

 cut the branches of the hickory, for the purpose of manufacturing 

 their own rods ; for, judging from the melancholy specimens 

 that I have seen of amateur mechanism in this line, a rod thus 

 produced, like most other things that are made at home, would be 

 a sorry competitor against one turned out by any of our fishing- 

 tackle manufacturers. I will tell the beginner what sort of rod 

 he ought to purchase, and this will, of course, depend in a great 

 measure on his means. If he can only afford one, this should be 

 what is called a general rod, of four or five joints, having two 

 butts, one very short for punt fishing, and the longer one bored 

 to carry three or four top joints : of these spare tops one should 

 be short, of stiff whalebone, for trolling near weeds and ledger 

 fishing ; another longer, and more pliant, for spinning a minnow 

 and heavy float fishing, for jack, j)erch, or barbel ; and a third 

 top and second joint, much lighter, for roach, dace, and gudgeon 

 fishing. Some rods have winch fittings on the second joint, but 

 these increase the weight of the rod, and an extra short butt is 

 much to be preferred. If you have two rods, the light one had 

 better be of cane, and the heavy one of hickory ; both should, of 

 course, have rings — the latter one, perhaps, small pieces of brass 

 tube, as they obviate the chance of the line catching, as it some- 

 times will, round the rings in trolling. These brass pipes may 

 be procured at any of the fishing-tackle shops. Whatever the rod 



