A HOME-MADE TROLLING ROD. 187 



or eighteen feet long, specimens of which you see 

 as signs, shooting upwards and over the streets, 

 at fishing-tackle makers' shops, will, by adding to 

 it half a dozen large rings, make an excellent trolling 

 or spinning rod, by means of which you can cast 

 any reasonable distance, and gather up your line 

 the moment your bait enters the water. Osier 

 and hazel nurseries will afford you long stout 

 saplings or shoots, which, if you cut them in 

 winter, will make useful trolling rods. However, 

 as Mr. Elaine says, the well-made tackle-shop rod 

 is infinitely preferable for the numerous diversities 

 which a river presents ; by its means the bait can 

 be lifted over sedges, directed into pools, and drop- 

 ped into the water-runs between reed-beds, more 

 readily than by any other method. It also gives 

 you the power of playing your fish according to 

 the pleasant rules of art. 



I advise the use of a moderate portion of lead 

 only on any part of the swivel-trace. If the gorge- 

 hook is properly leaded, it will be sufficient to 

 sink the bait without any additional weight more 

 than that given by the swivels. The generality 

 of trollers use too much lead, and troll with too 

 much rapidity. The following trolling axioms 

 are selections from good authorities. 



Swivel-traces are necessary in trolling, for by 

 their means it is that the bait revolves quickly, 

 and answers to its character of a troll or rolling 



