FLY FISHING FOE TKOUT. 95 



pangs," &c., &c., which humanitarians are so fond of in- 

 venting ; and in all reverence I would ask, if the hook 

 were so cruel in its application, would Our Lord have 

 ordered Peter to cast a hook into the sea in order to catch 

 a fish, and take the tribute money therefrom. It would 

 have been as easy for Him to tell the fish to come to the 

 bank and deliver up the coin. I have put this point to 

 many soft-hearted persons, and I have never known one 

 who could answer it yet. Then I am told I do it for 

 sport solely, and not for any necessity. This is not 

 altogether true. I like trout myself, and so do many of 

 my friends.' The trout are meant to be eaten. The sport 

 appears to me harmless, cheerful, healthy; and why 

 should I not catch my own or my friend's breakfast or 

 dinner if it suits me to do so, and I find a great advan- 

 tage (as I do) by doing so ? Not that fly fishing requires 

 any support or extenuation from me. 



Fly fishing for trout is carried on either with a single or 

 double-handed rod, by far the larger number of its 

 votaries using the former. The single-handed rod is 

 usually a rod of from nine to twelve feet in length ; it 

 may even be a few inches longer or shorter in exceptional 

 cases, a good medium rod being from ten to eleven feet. 

 They are made of various woods, hickory, greenheart, and 

 split bamboo being the chief. 



The lighter a rod is, combined with' sufficient power for 

 its need, and the better balanced it is in the Tiand, the less 

 it tires the arm that wields it, and though a rod will only 

 weigh from eight to fourteen ounces, yet even that weight, 

 with the leverage exercised by the line in a long day's 

 fishing, makes the muscles of the hand and arm very glad 

 of a rest or change. Greenheart, as the heaviest wood, 

 might be supposed to give the heaviest rod, but the wood 



