CHAPTER IV. 



HODS, HOOKS, AND TACKLE. 



THE requisites of a good rod for fly-fishing are 

 strength, lightness, and even pliability, so that it 

 he not too supple in one part and too unyielding in 

 another, hut "bending, when a heavy fish is hooked, 

 in a regular curve from top to hut, and thus equa- 

 lizing the strain. Fifteen feet is a convenient length 

 for a tr outing rod; and a rod of this description, 

 having the two lower joints and the stock each 

 ahout three feet three inches long, with the stock 

 or hut hollowed to contain a fourth joint, three feet 

 long, with two top pieces, in case one should "be 

 "broken when fishing, from eighteen to twenty-two 

 inches, may he carried in a hag, and put together 

 when wanted. The small top-piece ought never to he 

 joined to the next length by a brass socket, hut "by a 

 neatly fitting " scare" as the joining made by sloping 

 each piece to alternate angles is called and spliced 

 on with a piece of double silk or fine twine, at the 

 water side. When the rod is in the bag, the "brass 

 sockets ought always to be kept plugged, to prevent 

 their being pressed together, with pieces of wood 

 which exactly fit them; and in putting the rod 



