150 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



CHAPTER VI. 



RODS AND ROD MATERIAL. 



IN no matter pertaining to the art of fly-fishing is 

 there such discordance of opinion as in regard to the 

 proper action and balance of the rod. In nothing does 

 the old adage " what is one man's meat is another man's 

 poison" more fully apply. 



The lengths preferred by different anglers, all thor- 

 oughly experienced and skilled, vary in about the same 

 proportion as do the noses on their respective faces. 



Perhaps the extreme limits now used in this coun- 

 try lie between twelve feet and eight feet six inches. 

 Abroad, until recently, twelve feet was considered rather 

 a short rod. Here the tendency is decidedly to shorten 

 and lighten the rod, and those of eleven feet will even 

 now only be found in the hands of veterans, in whose 

 ideas change finds no place. 



The American angler regards the fly-fishing outfit of 

 our transatlantic cousins with mingled admiration and 

 surprise admiration for the filmy leader and the ex- 

 quisite flies but astonishment approaching almost to 

 incredulity at the engine with which these are said to be 

 propelled. The rod and the tackle seem to him utterly 

 incongruous, like wedding a man of eighty-five to a girl 

 of sixteen. 



Francis Francis, in his book on "Angling," gives a 

 table of the length and weight of four single-handed 



