Fly-Fishing 27 



collapse, or, worse still, bend one way and stay that 

 way, if used on the stream. The fly-rod material 

 must be springy and resiliency so, and the rod must 

 be constructed so as to permit of this condition. 



The reel I favor is a small, narrow, light, all-rubber 

 or narrow aluminum common-click reel, holding 

 twenty-five yards of the thinnest-calibered silk, water- 

 proof-enameled line. 



My leader is a brown-stained one of silk gut, twelve 

 feet in length. The leader should be fresh and firm, 

 flexible and fine, not a dried-up, brittle, unyielding, 

 snappy snarl of the salesman's discarded sample box 

 that breaks at the mere touch, or releases the flies at 

 the first cast or parts at the first strike if by some 

 miraculous mischance you get this far with it. The 

 leaders, a half-dozen of them, should be carried, when 

 not in actual use, in a flat, aluminum, pocket-fitting 

 box between two dampened flannel mats (though not 

 preserved this way in close season), so as to have them 

 thoroughly limp from being water soaked, that you 

 may more readily and more safely adjust them, for 

 break they surely will if handled in a dry state. 



The willow creel, in which the spoil of the day is 

 d2posited, should be, I think, about the size of a small 

 hand-satchel. To this is fastened a leather strap, 

 with abroad, shoulder-protecting band of stout canvas. 

 This I sling over the right shoulder, allowing the creel 

 to hang above the back part of the left hip where it 

 will least interfere with me during the fight with 

 fontinalis. 



The landing net I use is a little one of egg shape, 

 made of cane with no metal whatsoever, and it has a 

 linen mesh about ten inches in width and eighteen 

 inches in length. The handle is a trifle over one foot 



