234 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



Again, shortening a favorite rod between the butt and 

 middle joint by two inches or more, will so change the 

 action as to make its owner fairly sick at heart. 



On the other hand, if the rod breaks below the ferrule, 

 he is even more helpless ; for aside from ridding the 

 ferrule and cap of the broken portion, how is the tapered 

 hole to be bored to receive the dowel ? Yet unless this is 

 done somehow, the dowel will strike against the end of 

 the joint within the ferrule, and the male ferrule, if it 

 enter at all, will not do so sufficiently to permit the rod 

 to be used. 



Again and again have I known this accident to occur, 

 and never knew it to be remedied short of some kind of 

 a shop ; while, except in a few rare cases and with com- 

 mon rods of little value, it has been a case of immediate 

 quarantine, and subsequent hospital treatment by a pro- 

 fessional rod doctor. 



But if a rod provided with the simple ferrule is so 

 broken, a few matches softens the cement which retains 

 the ferrule in position, the broken piece is pushed out, 

 and the ferrule replaced with the very minimum loss in 

 length, and that by the merest tyro in repairs. And in 

 fifteen or twenty minutes he goes on his way, if not re- 

 joicing, still not a fit candidate for a mad-house. Here 

 surely the advantage is not with the dowelled ferrule. 



4th. But it strengthens the rod : 



A sane man would hardly anchor a sixteen-foot cat- 

 boat with a frigate's best bower anchor, though that 

 would undoubtedly strengthen that boat's hold on the bot- 

 tom. And so, if without the dowel and its complications 

 the requisite strength can be obtained, it would scarcely 

 seem common-sense to retain it for that reason alone. 



For twenty-five years I have used the simple fer- 



