39 

 ON RODS. 



These the angler should suit to his strength and stature, but he 

 will seldom go far wrong in paying a good price, and allowing a good 

 practical maker, who knows his business, to choose one for him, if 

 he mistrusts his own judgment. 



ON TACKLE. 



Never buy cheap tackle of any kind it is a delusion, a mockery, 



and a snare, and will be sure to fail you in your utmost need. A 



cheap line has a flaw in it for certain ; cheap gut frays out, and will 



not last; and cheap hooks are the devil, with all his imps at his 



back. We alwavs buy the very dearest hooks we can get in the 



market, and they never fail us, while the difference is about half-a- 



crown in a year, and many a salmon and trout of good dimensions 



bagged, that a cheap hook would probably have parted company 



with. Learn to make your own flies and tackle, and to mend your 



own rods not that you may always do so which would become 



o'erburdensoine but that you may be able to upon any emergency, 



and may, moreover, know what is good workmanship and what is 



not. How awkward it is to lose your only killing fly in a big-fish, 



in some mountain loch, or solitary stream, miles and miles from 



home, and how often the angler wishes he had some fly-making 



materials with him. A very useful little article is a fly-fisher's 



vade mecum ; this is a book about the size of a small fly-book, 



containing every requisite for fly-making, so that the angler may 



never be at a loss for making a fly, even by the river side ; but to aid 



this, a small screw pocket table vice will need to be carried ; also a 



small flat circular board, on which to screw it. Now if there be a 



circular hole in the board, by sticking the spear of the butt end of 



the fly-rod in the ground upright, and slipping the board over the 



joint until it jams, the angler has an ever ready table on which to 



fasten his vice. There are many who can dress a fly suificiently 



neat and killing without a vice, but there are more who cannot, and 



a good day's sport is often lost for the want of some particular fly, 



which ten minutes' application at the river side would supply. 



Now having your vice and table fixed, select hook and gut, and 



tie on, and now the vade mecum, with its stores, comes into play ; in 



the first few pages are small pockets, each containing a diminutive 



portion of dubbing, of every shade of brown, grey, yellow, reddish, 



greens, and neutral tints ; the next few pages contain hackles 



of all sizes, strips of paper being gummed over the quill ends and 



ranged in the shades required for trout flies ; then comes a page of 



the wing or tail feathers of various small birds, of different shades, 



for wings ; these are the main requisites. There are sundry small 



pockets to the book, containing cards, with small portions of floss 



and other silks and wools of various colours, with a scrap of tinsel, 



&c., &c. ; by this means a small but sufficient collection of 



