THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 207 



But first for your line : First note, that you are to take care 

 that your hair be round and clear, and free from galls, or scabs, 



But if you live in the country, and are forced to make your own rods, 

 take these directions : 



Between the latter end of November and Christmas, when the sap is 

 gone down into the roots of trees, gather the straightest hazels you can 

 find for stocks, and let them, at the greatest end, be about an inch or more 

 in diameter ; at the same time, gather shoots of a less size, for middle pieces 

 and tops, tie them together in a bundle, and let them lie on a dry floor ; 

 at the end of fifteen or sixteen months, match them together, and to the 

 Blender ends of the tops, after cutting oft' about eight or ten inches, whip a 

 fine taper piece of whalebone of that length, then cut the ends of the stock, 

 the middle piece, and the top, with a long slant, so that they may join 

 exactly to each other, and spread some shoemaker's wax, very thin, over 

 the slants ; bind them neatly with strong waxed thread ; and, lastly, fix a 

 strong loop of horse hair to the whalebone. Let the rod, so made, lie a 

 week to settle before you use it. In this manner, also, you are to make a 

 fly-rod; only observe, that the latter must be much slenderer from thu 

 end of the stock than the former. 



But for the uettest fly-rod you can make, get a yellow whole deal 

 board that is free from knots, cut off about seven feet of the best end, and 

 saw it into some square breadths : let a joiner plane off the angles, and 

 make it perfectly round, a little tapering, and this will serve for the stock ; 

 then piece it to a fine straight hazel, of about six feet long, and then a 

 delicate piece of fine grained yew, planed round like an arrow, and taper- 

 ing, with whalebone, as before, of about two feet in length. There is no 

 determining precisely the length of a fly-rod, but one of fourteen feet is as 

 long as can be well managed with one hand. To colour the stock, dip a 

 feather in aquafortis, and with your hand chafe it into the deal, and it will 

 be of a cinnamon colour. 



But before you attempt this sort of work, you must be able to bind 

 neatly, and fasten off. 



When the season is over, and you have done with your rods, take them 

 to pieces, and bind the joints to a straight pole, and let them continue s-o 

 bound till the season returns for using them again. See more directions 

 about the fly-rod, part ii. chap. v. 



Rods for Barbel, Carp, and other large fish, should be of hazel, and pro- 

 portionably stronger than those for Roai-h and Dace. And not^, that for 

 fly-fishing the bamboo cane is excellent. Screws to rods are not only 

 heavy, and apt to be out of repair, but they are absolutely unnecessary ; 

 and the common way of inserting one joint in another is sufficiently secure, 

 if the work be true. 



Our forefathers were wont to pursue even their amusements with great 

 formality. An angler of the last a<re must have his fishing-coat, which, if 

 not black, was at least of a very dark colour ; a black velvet cap, like those 

 which jockeys now wear, only larger ; and a rod with a stock as long as a 

 halbert : and thus equipped, would he stalk forth with the eyes of a whole 

 neighbourhood upon him. 



But in these latter days, bag-rods have been invented, which the angler 

 may easily conceal, and do not proclaim to all the world where he is going. 

 Those for float-fishing are now become common ; but this invention has 

 lately been extended to rods for fly-fishing ; and here follows a description 

 of such a neat, portable, and useful one, as no angler that has once tried it 

 will ever be without : 



Let the joints be four in number, and made of hiccory, or some such very 

 tough wood, and two feet four inches in length, the largest joint not 

 exceeding half an inch in thickness. The t->p mu^t be bamboo shaved. And 

 for the stock, let it be of ash, full in the grasp, of an equal length with the 

 other joints ; and with a strong ferrule at the smaller end, made to receive 

 the large joint, which must be well shouldered and fitted to it with the 

 utmost exactness. 



This rod will go into a bag, and lie very well concealed in a pocket in 

 the lining of your coat, on the left side, made straight, on purpose to 

 receive it. 



