326 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



But, first, for your Line. First note, that you are 

 to take care that your hair be round and clear, and 



weaker at the joints than elsewhere, and there being no bark to repel 

 the wet, it soon rots, and whenever you hook a large fish, certainly break*. 



But if you live in the country, and are forced to make your own rods, 

 take these directions : 



Between the latter end of November and Christmas, when the sap is 

 gone down into the roots of trees, gather the straitest hasels you can 

 find for stocks : and let them, at the greatest end, be about an inch or 

 more in diameter: at the same time, gather shoots of a less size for 

 middle-pieces and tops; Tie them, together, in abundle, and let themlie on 

 a dry floor ; at the end of fifteen or sixteen months, match them together ; 

 And to the slender end of the tops, after cutting off about eight or ten 

 inches, whip a fine taper piece of whalebone of that length; Then cut- 

 the ends of the stock, the middle-piece and the top with a long slant, 

 so that they may join exactly to each other; and spread some shoe- 

 maker's- wax, very thin, over the slants ; bind them neatly with strong 

 waxed thread. And lastly, fix a strong loop of horse-hair to the whale- 

 bone. Let the rod, so made, lie a week to settle before you use it. In 

 this manner, also, you are to make a fly-rod; only observe, that the latter 

 must be much slenderer, from the end of the stock, than the former. 



But, for the neatest fly-rod you can make : Get a yellow whole-deal 

 board that is free from knots, cut off about seven feet of the best end, and 

 saw it into some square breadths; let a joiner plane off the angles, and 

 make it perfectly round, a little tapering, and this will serve for the stock; 

 then piece it to a fine strait hasel, of about six feet long, and, then, a de- 

 licate piec of fine-grained yew, planed round like an arrow, and tapering, 

 with whale-bone, as before, of about two feet in length. There is no deter- 

 jnining, precisely, the length of a fly-rod; but one of fourteen feet is as long 

 as can be well managed with onehand, To colour the stock,. dip a feather 

 in aqua fortis, and with your hand chafe it into the deal, and it will be of a 

 cinnamon colour. 



But before you attempt this sort of work, you must be able to bind 

 neatly, and fasten off ; for which directions are given, in the notes on 

 Chap. XVIJ. 



When the season is over, and you have done with your rods, take them 

 to pieceSj and bind the joints to a strait pole, and let them continue so 

 bound till the ason returns for using them again. See more directions 

 about the fly-rod, Part II. Chap. V. 



Rods for Barbel, Carp, and other large fish, should be of hasel, and pro- 

 portionably stronger than those for Roach and Dace. And note, that for 

 fly-fishing the bamboo-cane is excellent. Screws to rods are not only 

 heavy, and apt to be out of repair, but they are absolutely unnecessary ; 

 and the common way of inserting one joint in another is sufficiently se- 

 cure, if the work be true. 



Our forefathers were wont to pursue even their amusements with great 

 formality. An Angler of the last age must have hisfrbing-coat, which, if 

 not black, was, at least, of a very dark colour ; a black velvet cap, like 

 those which jockies now wear, only larger ; and a rod with a stock as long 

 a* a h albert : And, thus equipped, would he stalk forth with the eyes of a 

 whole neighbourhood upon him. 



JBut in these later days, bag-rods have been invented, which the angler 



