FISHING IN THE EAST 

 have three vermilion bands, the rest being left the natural white. The 

 object of the alternating colours is to aid the eye in detecting slight and 

 slow depressions of the float, as they are very subtle. The line is attached 

 to one end of the float only, which makes the float more sensitive than 

 when attached, after the English fashion, to both ends. And thus attached, 

 with the float sitting at an angle, the first indication of a bite is the float's 

 sitting upright, which attracts attention at once. 



For quick striking, a rod must be stiff and light. The material ordinarily 

 used, and the simplest, if not the best, is the species of Indian bamboo 

 reed called in Calcutta a ringol, and ten feet long is the best length. You 

 cannot see the stealthy bites further off, and you cannot strike as quickly 

 with a longer rod. These reeds are sold seventeen or eighteen feet long in 

 the Calcutta market. At the thin end let it be one -eighth of an inch thick, 

 not more, and saw off a ten-foot length. The butt end of this will be too thin 

 to hold conveniently, so take sixteen inches of the discarded thick end, 

 sawing it off so as to have a natural bamboo joint at the thickest end to 

 form a butt. This thick end will be hollow enough, with a little fitting » 

 to slip the butt end of your ten-foot rod into it, right down to the bamboo 

 natural joint, fit well and firmly, and fix with glue. It should make a 

 perfect handle, and the whole rod should weigh eight or nine ounces 

 without the winch. It may be made in two joints. Messrs Oakes and Co., 

 Madras, used to make these rods excellently. The bamboo has sometimes 

 to be straightened with oil and heat. 



Doubtless they could be made in England of split cane if it is worth 

 the while of tacklemakers to build labeo rods. Their required stiffness may 

 be tested as follows: lay the rod on the table, and place a thick coin on 

 the table, just touching the point of the rod, and on its left side. Then 

 strike to the right, parallel with the plane of the table; that is, strike away 

 from the coin. If the rod point answers to your strike by springing to the 

 right, that is, springing in the direction of your strike, and leaving the 

 coin undisturbed, such a rod will strike your fish promptly. But if the rod 

 is not stiff enough, it will first send the coin fiying to the left, and after- 

 wards recover its straightness, and then, not till then, answer in the 

 direction of your strike, thereby losing time, and your fish goes off 

 smiling. And the required stiffness should not be at the expense of light- 

 ness, for only if the rod is light can you strike quickly and yet with not so 

 much momentum as to break your single gut. The split cane rod can 

 probably be kept within the same weight as the ringol. 



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