74 



CHAPTER V. 



BOTTOM FISHING Continued 



PUNT FISHING, BANK FISHING, BOTTOM LINES, 

 FLOATS, SILKWORM GUT, REELS OR WINCHES. 



IN punt fishing, a much shorter rod should be 

 employed than is necessary for fishing from 

 the bank. The material should be cane. The 

 East Indian variety is by far the best, both for 

 durability and strength. This will be found to stand 

 heavy punishment when other woods give way ; in- 

 deed, we doubt as to whether the hardest and most 

 solid wood that grows will surpass, or even equal it 

 in these characteristics. Solid wooded rods are not 

 only more apt to break, but to bend permanently, 

 so as to necessitate the reversing of the rings to the 

 opposite side of the joints periodically ; but there is 

 one thing we cannot omit calling attention to anent 

 cane rods, and that is their liability to snap at the 

 joints close to the ferrules. There is, of course, a 

 stiff place where the parts meet in a non-spliced 

 rod, and when an unusual strain is applied to it, 

 the wood immediately, above or below, snaps off 

 short. The nuisance of this may be effectually 

 avoided by a small wooden plug, of some four or 

 five inches long, being inserted in the hollow of the 



