THE SAFETY OF THE ROD 47 



his notice. Fish are not always feeding, and even 

 when feeding are by no means always rising to the 

 surface. It follows, therefore, that if a fly is cast in 

 all likely places while not omitting at the same time 

 to keep a sharp look-out for rising fish trout will 

 be taken whose rise has not been seen, or who may not 

 have felt inclined to rise before seeing the angler's fly. 

 We have now reached our starting-point, and before 

 commencing we will carefully examine our tackle. 

 First let me caution you against laying the rod on the 

 ground. It is always dangerous to lay your rod on 

 the ground ; even if you should never tread on it, 

 someone else might possibly do so. Press the spear, 

 which should be always fitted into the butt end of 

 the rod, firmly but delicately into a soft tuft of grass, 

 and you have thus both hands at liberty. If you 

 drive the rod into the ground with a jerk you will 

 put a strain on to your winch, especially if it be a 

 Nottingham one, which may injure it, and in any case 

 a jerk can do no good to the rod. When you have 

 no spear, place the butt of the rod on the ground, 

 and let the upper part rest against the body between 

 the arms. You have, as before, your hands at liberty. 

 Now the rod is standing up out of any danger, and we 

 must look carefully at the gut cast and at the fly, and 

 see that they are in good order. Everything being all 

 right, we must render the line and fly as buoyant as 

 possible, and this we do by applying some odourless 

 paraffin-oil, which is contained in the small bottle 

 you see hanging from the second button of my Norfolk 



