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These rods possess great casting power, and will stand an 

 immense amount of hard work. A gentleman of great practical 

 experience with whom I am acquainted, Mr. M. Burnet, of the 

 Fly-fisher's club, killed this season, 1886, the extraordinary num- 

 ber of 599 salmon and grilse, and a heavy total last season* on one 

 of these steel-centre rods, using the same top joint all the time ; 

 and although the top ring has been twice worn away the joint 

 itself is only in a very slight degree bent. I am not authorised 

 (for sufficiently obvious reasons !) to mention the name of the 

 " happy hunting ground" on which this feat was performed, but 

 it may interest my readers to know that on five days (not con- 

 secutive) Mr. Burnet's catches were 25, 27, 29, 29 and 37 fish a 

 truly magnificent record, and one not easily beaten. The most 

 I ever did myself, with the fly, was 15 spring salmon in one day, 

 and at the end of it, as I can well recollect, the muscles of my 

 arm and back cried " hold, enough ! " This was on a river in the 

 North of Ireland. I was then using an 18 foot rod ; I have since 

 learnt wisdom in this particular and now never use a rod of any kind 

 over about 14 feet. With such a weapon, made, of course, expressly 

 for the purpose, I have caught hundreds of salmon, many of them 

 over 2olbs., and whilst I find practically little or no diminution in 

 the efficiency of the shorter rod for killing or casting purposes, the 

 additional pleasure and comfort derived have been great. In 

 saying that I have found little or no practical difference in the 

 1 casting ' powers of the shorter rod, I do not of course mean to 

 assert that a 14 foot rod will cast as far as one of 18 or 20 feet, 



* Since this was written the following paragraph has been published in the 

 columns of a sporting journal ; it adds some details which I had omitted : 

 " Mr. M. Burnett caught his five hundred and ninety-nine salmon on one of 

 Messrs. Hardy's 18 ft. steel-centre, built-cane salmon rods. Only one top 

 was used i.e., the same top killed all the fish, and the previous season Mr. 

 Burnett had used it in killing one hundred and twenty- two salmon. The fish 

 averaged iolb., so that this gives a total weight of over 7,ooolb. brought to 

 gaff with one and the same top. This speaks well for English-made built-cane 

 rods." 



