144 TUT. UOIT.I.K-IIAN'D KOD. 



to each other, for no rod will carry a line which bends it 

 too much for any length of time without straining and 

 warping irretrievably. 



I have, however, after long experience, given up using 

 single-hand rods altogether, for there is little which you 

 can do with the single-hand rod whicli you cannot do with 

 a double-hand one, and there are many things which you 

 can do with the double-hand rod which you cannot with 

 the single. In the first place, you have im:eh greater 

 power in a double rod, and if you get hold of a large fish 

 you can kill him with more certainty and less loss of time. 

 You can also play a fish with more ease and lift your line 

 over distant weeds, or bushes on the bank, which would 

 often be fatal to the single rod. When the grass and weeds 

 are high, or, as is often 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. The only 

 advantage which I know of that a single rod has over a 

 double is when you are wading up a small or moderate 

 stream and casting under bushes on either hand ; then the 

 shorter your rod, in reason, the better ; when you come to 

 such a reach, if you have a short single rod you may use it* 

 But to fish a whole clay with a single-hand rod is very 

 trying to the fore arm, 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 



