VARIETY OF RODS. 11 



masterly minuow or worm rod, giving the angler an in- 

 finitely greater command over both the water and the 

 bait than any mere trouting rod can do, while it 

 is sufficiently powerful, if made of good materials, to 

 manage the heaviest salmon, if played with proper tact, 

 and will cast a line with much greater delicacy and pre- 

 cision, though perhaps not quite so far, as one of those 

 huge titanic implements of 20 or 22 feet in length, 

 which no rational man under seven feet in stature would 

 ever attempt to handle. 



I must confess that, in fly-fishing for trout, I con- 

 sider the use of the two-handed rod rather more of a toil 

 than a pleasure ; and those who use it always seem to 

 me to be more like labourers earning their fish " by the 

 sweat of their brow " than jolly sportsmen in pursuit of 

 a day's pleasure. But this feeling may be a peculiarity 

 of my own. What with the cumbrous weight of the 

 rod, the extra exertion required in casting, and the 

 clumsy coach-whipping style in which it lays the line 

 upon the water, I consider the double-hand system to be 

 a method of fly-fishing which ought to be exploded by 

 all sportsmen who have any pretensions to elegance or 

 taste in the pursuit of their favourite pastime. It is an 

 unquestionable fact that in order to fish with success in 

 the pellucid streams of the north, where a lady's sewing 

 needle may be distinctly seen at the bottom of a pool 

 six feet deep, the whole of the line and tackle used 

 must not only be of the very finest, but with its attached 

 flies so lightly and dexterously laid, rather than cast, upon 

 the surface of the water, as to resemble the gossamer 



