CONSULTATION ON FISHING RODS. 273 



CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE PROPER MANUFACTURE OF RODS. 



I HAVE consulted three living authorities touch- 

 ing the qualities of salmon and trout fly-rods, 

 and I will give the result of my consultations in 

 the words, with scarcely any alterations, of my 

 different learned angling counsel. 



The first a gentleman, and celebrated angler, 

 and general sportsman of Wales, writes to me : 

 " As I have fly-fished through this season with a 

 salmon rod of eighteen feet, made by one of the 

 London topping artists, in their best style, with 

 ferrules, I shall lay down, sans ceremonie, all its 

 good and bad points. It is of hickory at butt 

 and centre, top joint made of lance wood with 

 cane or bamboo. I have no fault to find with this 

 rod as regards its throwing, for I am of opinion 

 that a ferruled rod will throw better and farther 

 than the spliced one, since, if we consider what a 

 long slender affair the eighteen or twenty foot 

 fly-rod is,- that it requires here and there some 

 support, to give it strength and action, we will 

 conclude that the aid of ferrules is necessary. To 

 any sort of fly-rod I should never have more than 

 T 



