54 SALMON FISHING 



centred built-cane rod may seem to many an ample 

 compensation for its defectiveness in the characteristic 

 quality of greenheart. In salmon rods, though not 

 in trout rods, it seems so to myself; but I am not 

 meaning to urge this view. Preference for green- 

 heart is easily understood, and there are professional 

 craftsmen who work so well with it that any 

 rod supplied by them may be trusted to have a 

 good sporting chance of unimpaired life for many 

 years. 



Much more important than the comparative 

 merits of the woods is the dynamic character of the 

 finished product, whatever the material may be. A 

 first-class modern rod is an extremely delicate 

 instrument. Mr. Hardy's remark about the import- 

 ance of a very minute fraction of an inch in thickness 

 of the butt illustrates the wonderful subtlety of 

 the whole. There are a few specifications that may 

 be set down roughly. A salmon rod, to be used 

 for fly-fishing in a large river, should be about 

 eighteen feet long ; if made of cane it should weigh 

 rather less than two pounds and a half, or if of 

 greenheart a little more ; and it should enable you 

 to cover rather over thirty yards. On smaller rivers 

 the befitting rods are of smaller size, weight, and 

 power. When we have said that, however, we have 

 gone but a little way into the problem. I can 

 imagine a rod that would cast a fly beautifully 

 thirty -five yards, and cast it half that distance 

 clumsily. Such a rod, it is scarcely needful to say, 

 is not ideal. The fly has to fall neatly, at whatever 



