THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 61 



being made of fir-wood, for two or three lengths nearest to the 

 hand, and of other wood nearer to the top, that a man might 

 very easily manage the longest of them that ever I saw, with one 

 hand ; and these, when you have given over angling for a sea- 

 son, being taken to pieces, and laid up in some dry place, may 

 afterwards be set together again in their former postures, and 

 will be as straight, sound, and good as the first hour they were 

 made ; and being laid in oil and color, according to your master 

 Walton's direction, will last many years.* 



The length of your line, to a man that knows how to handle 

 his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of encumbrance, excepting 

 in woody places, and in landing of a fish, which every one that 

 can afford to angle for pleasure has somebody to do for him ; and 

 the length of line is a mighty advantage to the fishing at distance ; 

 and to fish fine, and far off, is the first and principal rule for 

 trout-angling. 



Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever exceed, 

 two hairs next to the hook ; for one, — though some, I know, will 

 pretend to more art than their fellows, — is indeed too few, the 

 least accident, with the finest hand, being sufficient to break it : 

 but he that cannot kill a trout of twenty inches long with two, in a 

 river clear of wood and weeds, as this and some others of ours 

 are, deserves not the name of an angler. 



Now to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of the first 

 lengths, nearest the hook, should be of two hairs a-piece ; the 

 next three lengths above them of three, the next three above 

 them of four, and so of five, and six, and seven, to the very top : 

 by which means your rod and tackle will in a manner be taper 

 from your very hand to your hook ; your line will fall much 

 better and straighter, and cast your fly to any certain place, to 

 which the hand and eye shall direct it, with less weight and vio- 

 lence, that would otherwise circle the water, and fright away the 

 fish. 



* Many good rods have been ruined by not being properly cared for 

 during the winter ; and a room heated by stove or furnace, so common in 

 this country, is a very bad place to lay them up in ; lieat being more hurt- 

 ful even than damp, warping the wood and starting the ferules. -v2m. Ed. 



