FISHING ROD HISTORY 29 



fresh waters consisted in casting the fly; in cast- 

 ing with medium weight rods and minnows or 

 other live bait, sometimes attached to a spoon 

 or spinner; in still-fishing with minnows, worms, 

 grubs, or other insects ; in trolling with live or 

 artificial lures. There were other forms, but 

 these will suffice for the present. Nearly all 

 rods were long and heavy. In order to make 

 one of these, skill of no mean order was re- 

 quired, and amateurs who made attempts were 

 more often disappointed than satisfied. 



Then came the change in the methods of 

 using the bait-casting rod. Extremists went 

 from rods of eight and nine feet to those of 

 six, five, four, even less than four feet in length, 

 but as time passed and experience has been 

 gained, many of them have settled on five and 

 one-half or six feet as a very satisfactory length 

 for the superb little rods with which they cast 

 a long line and some form of artificial lure, 

 using a free-running multiplying reel. 



It is possible to make these rods as light and 

 almost as graceful as the trout fly-rods. Angle 

 woims and live minnows and doodlebugs are 

 no longer considered necessary by way of lure, 

 and the methods of the bait-caster may be made 

 as cleanly and as skillful as those of his brother 

 of the fly-rod. 



