286 



THE SALMON FLY. 



stormy days, when they usually have to knock under, this rod enables 

 them to continue fishing in their ordinary way. It is, in short, just the 

 very opposite of a Spey rod, which in windy weather is useless. 



It has just been said that my own rod is found the most pleasantly 

 powerful and generally serviceable. Lest there should be suspicions 

 arising of a possibly mischievous severity upon the fish's mouth due to 

 the increase of material in the modification, it may safely be promised 

 that there is no ground whatever for fear. A crucial instance may be 

 adduced here in support of this statement, apart from what is urged 

 elsewhere on striking and playing fish. It occurred early in the ex- 

 perience of a friend when using a rod selected for him by myself. This 

 is his account of its conduct in his hands, with one of my own lines lent 

 upon the occasion : 



" At first I was quite disappointed in the rod, and though you 

 described to me intelligently enough how to use it, especially in casting 

 ' Overhand,' it was not until the third day call me duffer, if you will- 

 that it ceased to be tiring and I began to acquire the knack of it. Now I 

 would never wish to go back to the old style. I really think I should lose 

 all pleasure in fishing if I did. The sense of power and of scope for skill 

 are vastly greater with your pattern. I astonished myself when I came 

 back to the old Spey cast, and popped out a good line in gusty weather. 

 The latest triumph, however, was this. Certain friends here who use 

 light rods and lines have looked rather askance at the rod's action, and 

 suggested that it would be sure to tear fishes' mouths badly. If yours did 

 so, what about Major Traherne's ? But facts, happily, are surprising 

 things, sometimes the right way, too. What mouth among the Salmonidce 

 is tenderer than a Grilse's an hour or two fresh from the open sea ? It is 

 like a grayling's almost. Well, on the 15th August I hooked and ran 

 within 200 yards of the open North Sea thirteen Grilse, and saved eleven 

 of them without assistance. I struck them off your pattern reel from 

 Farlow's. It seems to me that even without other experience this pro- 

 portion of eleven out of thirteen played should for ever put an end to any 

 charge of severity against your system of red and line. . . No more 

 broken tops this season either. Bravo modified C. C." 



The saving of " tops " referred to a little hint previously given not 



