Off TROUTING, TROUT FLIES, ETC. 97 



nip the trout up as he rises, and be more successful 

 by open means than by hidlins ; and why bind to 

 fish with one hand only* ? If you have two hands 

 left from the Crimean or Indian wars, use both, ex- 

 cept when you require to scratch your lug. Thus 

 make your angling easy, pleasurable, and man-like. 

 The balance of rod should be thus when you hold 

 it by the butt, in* a horizontal position, it should not 

 droop in the top, though on the point of doing so ; 

 and it is an observable fact, that a well-balanced rod, 

 always feels one half lighter in the hand than an ill- 

 balanced one, although both of the same weight, upon 

 the whole, if weighed in scales. This occurs from 

 being top-heavy, or too yielding in the middle, where 

 it should stand stiffest, yielding rather more both 

 below and above the centre. I approve also of the 

 extreme top for two, or not exceeding three, inches 

 being very pliant, such as whalebone rendered finely 

 small will make it ; as in fishing on the stream-water, 

 say on a summer evening, when good sized trouts 

 are feeding on small flies, a stiff top will strike the 

 grip from their mouth as fast as you hook them ; than 



* We have always found a one-hand rod the pleasantest to angle 

 with, because it fatigues less than a two-hand one. A light one-hand 

 fly-rod brings more trouts to the creel too, because the angler can. 

 cast oftener with it than a two-hander, and the oftener the nies fall 

 on the water the more chance for trouts, of course. [EDR. J 



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