104 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



the case, there is a hedge within reach behind you, they can 

 be avoided far better with an extra eighteen inches or so in 

 the length of the rod, and when fishing with a single rod 

 just before haymaking, the annoyance of catching hold of 

 a long spear of grass behind you every now and then is very 

 considerable. And beyond all this, to fish a whole day with a 

 single-hand rod is very trying to the forearm, and more 

 particularly to the grasp of the right hand. Many a time has 

 my hand and arm ached so after a long spell of casting that I 

 have been compelled to leave off to rest them ; and when the 

 arm and grasp get tired there is not that certainty and precision 

 in the cast that is advisable. For all these reasons, and many 

 more which it is needless to enumerate, I hold that a double- 

 hand trout rod is far preferable to a single one, and I am sure 

 that any fisherman who gives them a fair trial will come to 

 the same conclusion that I have. I have made many converts 

 by inducing single-hand rod fishers to try one of my doubles 

 for a day. 



The ordinary length of a double rod is from about 14 ft. 

 to 14 ft. 6 in. I, however, like a long rod, and I usually prefer 

 one of 14 ft. 6 in. Such a rod should be tolerably pliable, while 

 the selection of the wood may be left to the tackle-maker. 



I will, however, describe two rods which I use, and with 

 which I am quite content. The rod I generally fish with is 

 three jointed, the two lower joints being of bamboo and the 

 top of a single splinter of greenheart ; it has upright rings. 

 This rod, however, is rather stiff in the two lower joints, but 

 as there is plenty of flexibility in the top, a little care enables 

 me to throw not only a very long line, but small flies without 

 much danger. I had it made to pattern by Ogden, of Chelten- 

 ham ; and originally the top was spliced, and was some three 

 or four inches shorter, and the reason for this was as follows. 

 A season on the Border had shown me that when fishing the 

 streams in that part of the kingdom the angler cannot tell 

 when he starts, whether before the day is over he may have to 

 use fly, worm, or minnow ; and to carry a rod with a spare 

 top for these purposes, and to be changing the top now and 

 then is inconvenient, and therefore I had a rod made which 

 might answer without alteration for all these purposes, and I 

 found that it answered very well indeed ; but not requiring 

 it for that work, and needing it more particularly for a fly rod, 

 I discarded the spliced tops, finding that as all the work in 

 fly-fishing rested with the top, the splices suffered, and I had 



