

The Rod and Line described. 1 69 



dexterity and precision, and exercise that nicety in 

 handling his rod which fine tackle and observant 

 trout demand. To a skilful worm-fisher, the results, 

 though not so invariably good as Stewart affirms, 

 will yet be sometimes excellent, and often suffi- 

 ciently encouraging to lead him to regard the worm 

 as the best lure in clear water when fly-fishing is 

 at its worst. 



In fishing with this, as with any other kind of 

 bait, a reel-rod is essential. It should be both light 

 and stiff; and the length need not be more than 

 13 feet. The double-handed 14 to 16 feet rod 

 recommended by Stewart, and perhaps well suited 

 to a man of his six-feet-two proportions, will un- 

 less made of very light material, such as bamboo or 

 white pine in the hands of the average angler of 

 ordinary stature, prove a most fatiguing and un- 

 wieldy implement, interfering at once with facility 

 in casting and promptness in striking. As I have 

 already urged in all kinds of up-stream fishing, the 

 gut-line, for a yard or two next the hooks, should 

 be of the finest. Indeed some anglers, when fishing 

 in either a clear or a flooded water, use a line 

 entirely composed of gut ; and to obviate the objec- 

 tion that such a line might be nearly as invisible 

 to the fisher as it is intended to be to the fish, they 

 affix to it a small piece of red cloth, a few inches 

 from the point of the rod, as a guide to the position 



