86 SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



It will be observed that while the ferrules used in this 

 rod are the same as those in a short-handled Henshall min- 

 now-casting rod of split-bamboo, the greater length of the 

 several pieces in the fly-rod gives it greater pliancy. 



STEEL FISHING RODS. 



Anglers have been wont to say of good rods that they 

 were as pliable and strong as steel, or were steel-like in 

 action, little thinking that a real rod of steel would ever be 

 made. But there has recently been introduced a steel fish- 

 ing rod by the Horton Manufacturing Company, of Bristol, 

 Connecticut, which is really an article of much merit. 



Such a thing as a steel rod has been talked of as one of the 

 possibilities, but I never imagined how it could be success- 

 fully accomplished. I knew that a solid steel rod would be 

 far too heavy, and I could not understand how a steel tube 

 could be made with " play " enough to answer the require- 

 ments of a fishing rod. 



The difficulty has been solved, however, in the Horton 

 steel rod, which is composed of three tapering steel tubes, 

 telescoping one within the other. Each tube is formed of 

 a thin strip of steel, bent around a mandrel, the edges in 

 close apposition, but not brazed ; and therein lies the whole 

 secret, for, being practically a slit tube, it admits of a 

 twisting as well as a bending motion, thus simulating the 

 action of a wooden rod ; the twisting motion could not be 

 obtained in a brazed or drawn tube. The tubes are exceed- 

 ingly well tempered, which I imagine is one of the most 

 important features of their construction. 



The rod has a wooden handle, like an ordinary rod, with 

 a small opening just above the reel-seat, through which the 

 line passes, running through the inside of the rod and out 



