ROD, LINE, AND REEL. 265 



Connell style of rod is tolerably good for some waters ; 

 but the small "grip" or hand-hold afforded by the 

 slender stock has a very cramping effect when the rod 

 is wielded industriously for a lengthened period. The 

 six feet joints, with the delicate spliced extremities, 

 are very liable to damage whilst travelling. Green- 

 heart is undoubtedly the best wood for heavy work. 

 There are, however, good and bad varieties of every 

 description of wood without exception. Thus we 

 have indifferent Greenheart, Wahaba, Maho, and 

 Locust, just as often, and perhaps more so than not, 

 made up into both salmon and trout rods ; but the 

 most deplorable error, and the one to be most assidu- 

 ously avoided, is cross-grained joints. There are 

 individuals careless and unprincipled enough to make 

 up short or cross-grained wood in most rods made by 

 them. This defect is most noticeable in coloured or 

 japanned articles. The steel-centred salmon rod is 

 a weapon several feet shorter than the usual old-style 

 lengths ; a rod of fourteen being quite equal to an 

 all-wood tool of sixteen-and-a-half feet. 



The LINE and REEL need but little comment. 

 The former should be from one hundred to one 

 hundred-and-twenty yards in length for all round 

 lake and river work. Salmon lines, as well as trout, 

 are plaited taper, both double and single. Personally, 

 we prefer a straight line, no matter of what material 

 it may consist. The fine ends are worn and frayed 

 by the constant friction, becoming soft, limp, and 

 waterlogged, whilst the thicker parts of the line, not 

 coming in for a fair share of the work, remain sound 



