258 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



Therefore, study the Chapter on Repairs carefully, try- 

 ing each step practically until it is perfectly familiar. 

 Supposing this to have been done, and that you can now 

 not only wrap on the silk but fasten it off as well, let us 

 proceed to put the rings on your new rod. 



First as to the sizes to be used. That the rings should 



be large is one of the traditions of fly-fishing. While 



this may have been, doubtless was, 



O/^X s~^ advisable when a rough horse-hair, 

 \J \~J or horse-hair and silk line was em- 

 ployed, it is no longer so, since an 

 enamelled water - proofed line with 

 its polished surface, is practically 

 the only thing used. The sizes I prefer are here shown. 



They are known to the trade as N"os. 4, 4, and 3^, in 

 the order given, A being 4. 



Be liberal in the use of rings. If you seize a piece of 

 wood of uniform strength by the ends, and break it, it 

 does not give way where it is grasped, but at some inter- 

 mediate point. And thus with a fly-rod. By being lib- 

 eral in the matter of rings you diffuse the strain, so that 

 though its aggregate be great, yet at no place will it 

 reach the breaking point. 



Place a ring close to each ferrule and its mate i.e., 

 so that when the rod is jointed a ring will be both above 

 and below the unyielding metal ; for thus, for reasons 

 before stated or implied, you lessen the danger of acci- 

 dent at those points. 



I place two rings on the butt joint, one at the ferrule 

 uniting it to the middle joint, and one about a foot be- 

 low. Seven rings, or even eight, if the joint is very long 

 and the butt correspondingly short, I allow for the mid- 

 dle joint, and seven for the tip. These rings should be 



