36 FISHING KITS AND EQUIPMENT 



you should use one or the other is merely a matter 

 of taste. The swelled grip is the most commonly used 

 and is the one generally furnished on rods good, bad 

 and indifferent. As a rule the shaped grip is found 

 only on the high grade rods with independent handle. 

 The handle of the fly-rod consists principally of the 

 grip and reel-seat, other parts being the butt-cap, or 



the metal cap at the bottom of the 

 J? e TT handle in English rods this is usually 



a hard rubber button and the " ta- 

 per " which binds the top of the grip material at the 

 junction of the handle and the butt-joint. We have 

 considered the grip, and the reel seat will be men- 

 tioned later. The only thing, then, to decide about 

 the handle is whether it is to be integral or inde- 

 pendent; that is, whether the handle shall be a per- 

 manent part of the butt-joint, or a separate length 

 provided with a ferrule into which the butt-joint fits. 

 The independent handle is advocated on the ground 

 of the greater portability and longer life of the rod. 

 Its advantages are best described by H. P. Wells in 

 Fly-Rods And Fly-Tackle. He says: " Insist on the 

 independent handle. By independent handle is meant 

 one so united to the butt-joint by a ferrule that the 

 rod may be turned half-way around in the handle and 

 back again at frequent intervals while fishing say 

 every half hour anyway and always immediately after 

 the rod had been subjected to a heavy strain. Thus 

 the rod is used with the rings above and below in 



