152 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



over the poles of the preceding table, will induce a will- 

 ing consent to the sacrifice. 



While the foregoing was as true when written in 1883 

 as any such sweeping generalization is likely to be, the 

 logic of events has since caused the English practice to 

 approximate much more nearly to our own. I have 

 seen numbers of English rods in the last five years, 

 which, except perhaps in the matter of ferrules and 

 mountings, would in all respects meet the approval of 

 any American angler. 



There is no doubt that the tendency of late years in 

 this country has been to still further shorten and lighten 

 the rod. But reason should have weight in all things 

 of this kind at first progressive reason, later conserva- 

 tive reason. The one favors change ; the other opposes 

 further change when the limit of reasonable change in 

 that direction has been reached. Now, has not this 

 limit been reached, or perhaps even somewhat over- 

 passed, in the eight-foot, three-and-a-half -ounce rods one 

 now sees in our larger tackle-shops ? In fishing quick 

 water, where the current always straightens the line, 

 and the conditions thus favor the back cast, where there 

 is no wind or a favorable wind, where the leader is of 

 the thinnest and the flies very small, and where a half- 

 pound trout is about the limit of reasonable expectation, 

 they may do pretty well. When confined to such a 

 sphere of action I do not know that there is anything 

 to be said against them, beyond that the user would 

 probably take more fish with a somewhat longer and 

 more potent rod. 



But on slack water, or in the open where the winds 

 of heaven have full play, the use of such rods not only 

 almost hopelessly handicaps the angler, but is a positive 



