48 ANGLER'S TACKLE AND EQUIPMENT. 



joinings altogether, and stands up in behalf of the tie 

 system. In short, there is no termination to the 

 variety of tastes and prejudices on the subject of fishing- 

 rods. The rings, the colouring, the varnish, the lower 

 fittings, all fall, as matters of dispute, within the con- 

 tentious circle; nor, indeed, does the observation of 

 many years, and the most ample and unprejudiced 

 testing of rods of every description, stiff and pliant, 

 light and heavy, single and double-handed, enable me 

 so decisively to pronounce an opinion upon one and all 

 of these matters, as even to approach an adjustment 

 of differences, in respect to them. 



I can only state, from personal experience, that a 

 very few days' practice will frequently suffice to recon- 

 cile one to the use of a rod which, at the first handling, 

 he felt somewhat dissatisfied with. I do not say that 

 it discovered any glaring fault in the build or material, 

 for these are matters requiring strict scrutiny and 

 attention ; but it wanted a particular virtue, which he 

 imagined the implement he was accustomed to use 

 possessed ; it could not, in fact, heave out the line so 

 satisfactorily, or drop the fly with so much nicety, or 

 assist in hooking the fish, on rising; perhaps it ex- 

 hausted the wrist or arm sooner ; there was about it, 

 in fact, some vice, it might be an indescribable one, and 

 yet, on a succession of trials, this vice or defect com- 

 pletely vanished. It had been got the better of by 

 practice ; nay, in reality, it was not a fault in the rod, 

 but a pre-existing prejudice on the part of its possessor, 

 which, as it arose through habit, could only become 

 extinguished under the same influential dominion. 



I have made these remarks as a prelude to this 

 subject, because I consider that many anglers lay a 

 great deal too much stress upon, and are fancifully 



