20 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



ness, with strength and balance, to a remarkable degree. It 

 will hook roach in a moment by a single turn of the wrist, 

 and the most powerful barbel and chub have been brought to 

 bank by it, and even the lordly salmon has succumbed to its 

 spring. The reel fittings are placed nine inches from the butt 

 end, and there the rod is 1^ in. in diameter, the ferrule on the 

 top of the bottom piece is five-eights of an inch in diameter 

 inside, and the one on the middle piece is five-sixteenths of an 

 inch inside. The rings on the rod are placed in the following 

 order : The first ring is immediately under the ferrule on the 

 bottom piece ; and the others measuring from that ring are 

 at the following distances from each other: 17 in., 17 in., 

 14| in., 10 in., 10 in., 9 in., 8 in., 6| in., and 6 in. The ring 

 or loop at the extreme point of the rod is made of steel. If 

 this were not so the line would cut it, to say nothing of the 

 line being chafed in turn through the ring being worn rough. 

 The rod I have just described weighs eighteen ounces. Not- 

 tingham rods are made in two, three, four, five, or six pieces, 

 according to fancy ; but I prefer a three-piece one. I can 

 most cordially recommend this rod as the bottom fisher's rod 

 par excellence; and as I am more particularly writing to 

 working-men anglers, to whom money is an object, the price 

 will just suit them : it is only 6s. 6d., partition-bag and all, 

 and will be found just the kind for barbel, chub, bream, 

 roach, and dace, &c. For those anglers who fish for roach 

 and dace only, a rod a little lighter than the one just 

 described would do. I have recently had a sweet roach 

 rod made ; it only weighs twelve ounces, and is beauti- 

 fully finished and balanced, and the price the same as the 

 other. 



I shall probably touch upon this question again in the 

 chapter on roach; but one thing I will say to the young 

 angler, don't buy a common, cheap rod ; they are a delusion 

 and a snare, for you may be in the midst of a good day's 

 fishing, and the fish biting nicely, when suddenly, from some 

 cause or other, your cheap rod snaps under the ferrule or 

 elsewhere. You then have to sit down on the bank, and 

 spoil your pocket-knife in trying to extract the piece of 

 wood out of the ferrule, and find after an hour's work that 



