24 FLOATING FLIES 



rod is, indeed, a revelation to one accustomed 

 to the use of an inferior article ever willingly 

 returned to the use of the makeshift rod with 

 which perhaps he had theretofore been con- 

 tented. 



The purchaser of a shotgun is usually aware 

 of the fact that beyond a certain limit, varying 

 with guns by different makers, he is paying for 

 finish pure and simple not for practical shoot- 

 ing efficiency in the weapon. But in the case of 

 the fly-rod this is not true with due deference 

 to the opinion of the man who holds otherwise, 

 simply, I am sure, because he has yet to cast a 

 fly with a genuine fly-rod. All this, of course, 

 within reason; it should be manifest that a 

 merely " highly ornate " rod spells increased 

 cost without return in practical casting and fish- 

 ing value. However, the gingerbread fly-rod is 

 so rare that it may safely be disregarded as a 

 factor in the present discussion also, paren- 

 thetically, as a factor in the day's score on the 

 trout stream. 



Reducing the matter to the practical dollars- 

 and-cents basis, it may be said in all truthful- 

 ness that up to thirty dollars, taking an average 

 of fly-rods by different makers, every additional 

 dollar spent on the rod inevitably means a com- 

 mensurate increase in the rod's efficiency, serv- 



