CHAPTER XXIII 



TACKLE TALKS 



" Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey. ' 



POPE. 



" See that all things be right 



For 'tis a very spite 

 To want tools, when a man goes afishing." 



CHARLES COTTON. 



To Extract Hooks. Cut the snell free and push the 

 hook on through, depressing the upper end so as to 

 bring the point out as near as possible to where it 

 went in. Don't try to pull the hook back. 



Knots in Rodwood. Don't switch a light rod side- 

 ways. The maker may have purposely put a knot to 

 one side, and this would cause the rod to snap. 



Function of the Rod. "The essential and most 

 important office of a rod is that which is exhibited 

 after the fish is hooked ... in other words, in the 

 playing and landing of the fish. In practical angling 

 the act of casting, either with fly or bait, is prelimi- 

 nary and subordinate to the real uses of the rod. The 

 poorest fly-rod made will cast a fly thirty or forty 

 feet, which is about as far as called for in ordinary 

 angling. But it is the continuous spring and yielding 



142 



