RODS. 35 



plated ones will frighten the fish, and I do not doubt that 

 the brook trout will be frightened by them sometimes, yet it 

 doesn't seem that this would make so very much difference. 

 The greatest objection to nickel plate is that it wears off and 

 exposes to view the brass that it covers. 



The livelier and more active a fly rod is the better it will 

 cast. A rather stiff rod is generally preferred, especially a 

 stiff first and second section. If you know what a rod should 

 be you can soon pick out a perfect one if you have an oppor- 

 tunity to try them, and that is the way to buy if you are 

 convenient to a sporting goods store. Try switching the rod 

 as in casting and if there is a weak spot in it you can readily 



A Two-Piece Split Bamboo Salt-water Rod and a Solid Wood 

 Rod in Two Sections with Removable Butt. 



feel it. Hold the rod out by the butt and sight along it to 

 see how evenly it droops, then turn it slowly and see whether 

 the droop changes, which it should not. Then attach a line 

 and see how the rod bends; also see that the joints line up 

 well one with another. 



As before intimated, the length and weight of rod should 

 be governed by the kind of fishing and the character of the 

 waters to be fished. Where the streams are swift and brush 

 dense along the banks, and the trout or bass of varying size, 

 as is usually the case in streams, the rod should be of only 

 about eight and a half feet. An ideal, all-around, fly rod 

 v/ould be of six strip split (not sawed) bamboo, carefully 



