AMERICAN TROUT FISHING 

 made by a certain English Arm which has held its place for many years. 

 It is a two-handed, fourteen-foot rod, with steel centre, which can be used 

 as a fly rod for salmon or heavy trout. It has several tops that convert 

 it into a spinning and trolling rod, and can be used for all sorts of fishing. 

 I fancy that it has sufficient power to kill almost anything with fins. 

 A first-class equipment can be had in the United States, if one is not biased 

 in favour of weapons made at home. 



If the fly is oiled, one can fish rough, fast water with dry fly without 

 difficulty. Shooting the line saves labour, and the slack line is taken in 

 with the left hand. It can be nipped with a finger of the right hand and held 

 in coils, which are released one or two at each switch in the air. When the 

 cast is made the fly is dry. In fact, one or two false casts are sufficient 

 when the fly has been oiled. I imported several bottles of " Natare " 

 two or three years ago, and a number of preparations for floating the fly 

 are on the market, but I find refined kerosene good enough. Take it out of 

 any lamp. I bought a bottle of it for one cent. The scent is not ambrosial, 

 but it is clear and light, evaporates rather quickly, but that is a good point 

 when it is spilled upon anything — ^your fishing jacket, for instance. 

 Paraffin oil is heavy and greasy.* 



I fancy that one cannot have too many reels, and those now made in 

 England for dry-fly, sea -trout and salmon fishing seem to be quite perfect. 

 I should prefer the noiseless check, but that is a matter of taste. I hate to 

 advertise myself when fishing. I have one old Abbey and Imbrie " click " 

 reel that scares me when a good fish takes out line in a hurry and rouses 

 all the dogs within half a mile. 



We have a most useful cheap reel in the United States which is much 

 used, but the spring in the click mechanism is of wire — poor, rotten stuff — 

 that breaks at inconvenient moments. Of course, some very fine reels are 

 made in this country and they command a good price. 



If I went to England I should invest as heavily as I dared in the best work 

 of British manufacture before I came home, and I think the visitors to the 

 United States will be tempted to do the same. On both sides of the Atlantic 

 brains and fine workmanship have gone into many of the articles necessary 

 to our craft. 



I notice that an angler who is possessed of a battery of fly rods is very 



*Few anglers seem to have realized that if a fly is oiled and allowed to dry it remains waterproof for ever. It 

 saves an immensity of trouble if one dips flies in paraflin at the beginning of the season, instead of carrying an oil 

 bottle out fishing and dipping the flies just before they are used. — ED. 



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