90 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



anglers, and its admirers are yearly extending. East 

 India cane is the best adapted for rods where stiffness 

 and lightness are essential, it being extremely strong, 

 though reasonably pliable. The rod we use ourselves for 

 this style of angling is but ten feet in length, the rings, 

 however, are large and stationary, and we find no diffi- 

 culty in casting to eighty or ninety feet with a tool of 

 this'descriptioii. The rings upon spinning rods should 

 all be upright and of fair size, so as to admit of a free and 

 unencumbered passage for the line when carried out by 

 the weight of the bait in casting. Where the fish do not 

 run large, an ordinary fly-rod answers admirably for 

 spinning purposes, when a short stiff top-piece is substi- 

 tuted for the slender fly- top joint, the only drawback be- 

 ing the minute loose rings, which hinder the free passage 

 of the line. 



THE LINE should be plaited silk, waterproof, of about 

 one-half the usual thickness of a dressed fly-line; forty or 

 fifty yards are required for any water more open than 

 small brooklets, etc. Nothing is so trying to a line as 

 bait spinning; and if it is desirable to keep the line sound 

 for a long period, it should never be worked undressed 

 and unprotected, or a very short time when constantly 

 use d will serve to rot and fray it, so as to render it unfit 

 for use. Twist or cable-laid lines are also of little utility, 

 as after a severe trial the reel frequently resembles a ball 

 of loose hemp or tow, the turn or twist having in part 

 been taken out by the spinning action of the bait. The 

 new acme wire lines are now being used for all-round fish- 

 ing, but they are best adapted for the fly. 



THE REEL, as in pike fishing, should be of the im- 

 proved Nottingham type. Some of these are made of 

 metal, some of wood; the best of the latter are metal- 

 bound, these are greatly to be preferred to the original 

 all-wood patterns, no inconvenience being experienced 

 from the wood swelling. The free action of these Not- 



