22 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



they are open to strong objections, although I am aware that 

 there is a lot more profit to be made out of a machine-made 

 rod than out of one that is made by hand. (Let it be dis- 

 tinctly understood by my readers that I am now writing as a 

 practical angler, and not as a rod and tackle maker.) I have 

 known the butts of machine-made rods to snap short off close 

 under the ferrule (owing, no doubt, to the tool in the lathe 

 slipping or nicking the wood a trifle just there), so I should 

 say, for practical purposes, have a good hand-made rod, even 

 if it is not so perfectly true or got up so smartly as a machine- 

 made one. A good float-fishing rod should be made with 

 plenty of timber in the butt, and tapered evenly and truly 

 right up to the point, so that it will strike a fish directly 

 from the point, and hook him in an instant, and then bend 

 to the weight of him in a perfectly true curve. Sometimes 

 the socket joints or ferrules of a rod split at the ends, and 

 to prevent this some makers have their ferrules ringed, that 

 is, double at each end. Now these double-ended ferrules are 

 to be objected to, and really are not required. I have found 

 that in nine cases out of ten, when the ferrule splits it is 

 because it is a tapered one, from end to end, with the smallest 

 end at top. Now the socket or counter that fits into this 

 tapered ferrule is straight, and fits tightly at one end, while 

 at the other end it is a little less, and consequently does not 

 fit close up. This, of course, flings all the weight on the 

 extreme end of the ferrule, and when a little extra strain has 

 to be put on, the ferrule is liable to split. The best plan is 

 to have your ferrules perfectly straight, with the counters 

 fitting exactly from end to end, and then just open or bell 

 out a trifle that end of the ferrule that grips the wood ; and 

 I might just add that the wood should not be shouldered 

 down to take the ferrule, so as to make wood and ferrule 

 quite level with each other, but it should, as it were, fit well 

 over, and tightly grip the wood. And another thing I have 

 seen in rods that must be objected to, and that is the pegs 

 that are on the bottom of the joints ; there is a hole bored 

 down the end of the joint to take this peg, and I have seen 

 this latter so very long and thick, that the hole has to be 

 bored down past the ferrule bottom on purpose to be of the 



