Rods and Rod Material. 159 



may fluctuate in the balance, but the angler's pan, acci- 

 dents excepted, invariably proves the heavier at last. 



Probably a decent fly-rod will bear with impunity a 

 steady strain, considerably in excess of anything under 

 which the angler can hold it up. The proximate cause 

 why rods fail in actual fly-fishing is not always free 

 from obscurity. The angle which the line bears to the 

 rod when the strain is applied, or in other words the di- 

 rection of the strain with relation to the axis of the rod, 

 is unquestionably an important factor. If the line and 

 the rod form one straight line, the tensile strength of 

 the material under a direct pull is alone involved; while, 

 if the line and the rod are approximately parallel, the 

 strain assumes many of the characteristics of a shock, 

 the rod has not time to bend and thus distribute the 

 load it cannot bear when localized, and it fails. I was 

 fishing with a friend from an extemporized raft anchored 

 before the outlet of a lake, into the mouth of which we 

 were casting. It was a time and place for large trout, 

 and we had been having fine sport. For some twenty 

 minutes we had not had a rise, so we concluded to have 

 a quiet smoke, and rest the water for a while. He had 

 a rod of my own make, quite new, the butt and middle 

 joint of thoroughly tested and approved greenheart. 

 He turned to me for some purpose, the rod perpendicu- 

 lar, and his fly resting on the water not three feet from 

 him. Suddenly a splendid trout, a little whale in dig- 

 nity of size, rose from under the raft and seized that fly. 

 The middle joint shivered as though struck by light- 

 ning. It was no transverse strain that could produce 

 such a break. The upper part seemed driven down on 

 that below it, until at the point of fracture it first split 

 the wood, and then scattered it outward in a shower of 



