CHAPTER V 



[TYPES OF BAIT-CASTING RODS 



f | O some persons it may seem that while 

 an eleven-foot rod must be nicely ta- 

 pered and balanced, a rod only half as 

 long, being more or less stick-like, if made a 

 given caliber, will answer. Nothing could be 

 further from the truth. While it is a fact that 

 a rod $y 2 feet in length requires less time and 

 material than one of the old-fashioned long 

 bait-fishing rods, it must be even more care- 

 fully made, for an error of one-sixty-fourth of 

 an inch in the caliber of butt or tip may render 

 it comparatively worthless. A mistake in the 

 long rod may be hidden in its greater resilience, 

 and this may save it, but reduce the length by 

 one-half and you more than double the work 

 required of each foot. 



For a long time after I first began to experi- 

 ment with the modern bait-casting rods I felt 

 sure that, for an all-round rod one of six feet 

 or slightly longer seemed preferable to those 

 of lesser lengths. Exhaustive experiments with 



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