44 



FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 



n all probability a fair chance of getting hold of a salmon; 

 and although, if you are not fishing with very fine tackle, 

 and the ground will allow of your following your fish, 

 there is no very great difficulty in killing a tolerable sized fish 

 on a twelve feet trout rod, yet it takes a good deal of time ; 

 besides that, a reel to hold seventy or eighty yards of line, 

 which quantity you ought to have when fishing for white 

 trout, is too large to be carried with comfort on a single- 

 handed rod. A white trout rod should be about fourteen 

 feet ; if longer is required you may as well use a light 

 salmon rod. I prefer a rod in two joints and spliced, the 

 butt should not be made too small in the grasp. The 

 fault of most double-handed spliced rods you buy are that 

 they are top-heavy, and the play is bad. A rod should 

 be made, if practicable, by one of the best makers. If 

 you buy from Farlow, Eaton and Deller, Alfred, or two 

 or three more of the best London, Edinburgh or Dublin 

 makers, or from Ogden of Cheltenham, you are tolerably 

 sure to get a good one, but the generality of fly-rods sold 

 are utterly worthless : the joints always stick, the wood 

 warps and the rings are of such soft wire the line soon 

 cuts into them. 



As to which are best, ferruled or spliced rods, the latter 

 are certainly the pleasantest to use, and I always have 



