SELECTING RODS. 115 



The shorter the distance at which the trout rod 

 appears to extend beyond the hand, judging by the feel 

 alone, when thus held and moved, the better. The shorter 

 the distance which the salmon rod appears to project 

 beyond a point midway between the two hands (the pivot 

 point), the better the balance, etc., of the rod. The dry 

 fly rod when held horizontally should not incline downward 

 at the tip. The purchaser of a rod should remember 

 that the wrist and arm unless fatigued will not readily 

 detect either a faulty action or a badly balanced rod 

 such faults will, however, become painfully apparent after 

 a few hours' fishing. 



The length and the stiffness or the whippiness of the 

 rod chosen should depend on the river, the size of the 

 fish, and the different methods of fishing. 



In dry fly fishing and fishing up stream, the rod selected 

 should be fairly stiff, as the hooking of a fish depends on 

 the initiative of the striker, and after a trout has taken the 

 fly, the sooner the strike is made and the wrist action 

 communicated to the hook, the better the chance of estab- 

 lishing a relationship between the trout and the rod. The 

 more whippy the rod, the longer the time occupied in com- 

 municating the wrist action to the hook. 



In fishing down stream, the rod will most often hook 

 the fish by its own delicate mechanical action, and it 

 becomes a more effective machine when its whippiness is 

 one of its pronounced features. 



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