CHAPTER IV 

 CONCERNING PIKE RODS 



Conflicting opinions on pike rods Selecting a rod Materials used 

 in manufacture Winch-fittings and ferrules Rings and their 

 makes A word of warning Weight and cost of pike rods. 



THERE seems to be a tendency among rod- makers in 

 general nowadays to sacrifice strength in a rod for 

 the sake of extra lightness and elegance ; and in no rod is 

 this more apparent than in what they are pleased to call 

 pike rods. Whole reams of paper have been written upon, 

 and whole columns of the sporting press occupied in a wordy 

 war as to the merits or demerits of light v. heavy rods, 

 leaving the anxious novice more anxious than ever, and 

 utterly at a loss to determine what he wants and which is 

 the best. 



Even experienced pike fishermen themselves are smitten 

 with the same sort of mania, and will insist on having a 

 rod for general pike-fishing that is totally inadequate for the 

 work they now and again call on it to do. Personally I am 

 far from being a believer in a heavy, clumsy weapon for the 

 sport now under notice ; but I like to draw the line at 

 something like reason, and start with, at any rate, a rod 

 that is not likely to play me false at a critical moment. I 

 have seen jack rods in use that hardly looked stout enough 

 for chub, and as for throwing a bait with any degree of 

 accuracy, why, that seemed out of the question altogether. 

 " But," says one of these believers in extra light and flimsy 

 rods, " I once killed a six-pound barbel and a four-pound 

 trout on that rod ; and if it will kill fish like those, why, 



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