266 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



these too are light, being made of fir-wood for two or three 

 lengths nearest to the hand, and of other wood nearer to the 

 top, that a man might very easily manage the longest of 

 them that ever I saw, with one hand ; and these, when you 

 have given over angling for a season, being taken to pieces, 

 and laid up in some dry place, may afterwards be set together 

 again in their former postures, and will be as straight, sound, 

 and good, as the first hour they were made ; and being laid 

 in oil and colour, according to your master Walton's direction, 

 will last many years. 



The length of your line, to a man that knows how to handle 

 his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of incumbrance, excepting 

 in woody places, and in landing of a fish, which every one 

 that can afford to angle for pleasure, has somebody to do for 

 him ; and the length of line is a mighty advantage to the 

 fishing at a distance ; and to fish fine, and far off, is the first 

 and principal rule for trout-angling.* 



Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever 

 exceed two hairs next to the hook ; for one, (though some, I 

 know, will pretend to more art than their fellows) is indeed 

 too few, the least accident, with the finest hand, being 

 sufficient to break it : but he that cannot kill a trout of 

 twenty inches long with two, in a river clear of wood and 

 weeds, as this and some others of ours are, deserves not the 

 name of an angler. 



Now, to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of the 

 first lengths nearest the hook should be of two hairs a-piece ; 

 the next three lengths above them of three ; the next three 

 above them of four ; and so of five, and six, and seven, to 

 the very top : by which means, your rod and tackle will, in 

 a manner, be taper from your very hand to your hook ; your 

 line will fall much better and straighter, and cast your fly to 

 any certain place, to which the hand and eye shall direct it, 

 with less weight and violence, than would otherwise circle 

 the water, and fright away the fish. 



* An artist may easily throw twelve yards of line with one hand ; and with 

 two, he may as easily throw eighteen. H. 



[An accomplished fly-fisher of the present day can throw his fly a distance 

 of fifteen yards with a single-handed rod, and twenty-five and even thirty yards 

 with the double-handed salmon-rod. Modern superiority in throwing the fly 

 is the result of fishing with far better rods and lines than those used in the 

 time of Sir John Hawkins about a century ago. Since 1836, when I first 

 began to write upon angling, the improvement in all sorts of fishing-tackle 

 has been wonderfully progressive, marked, and useful. ED.] 



