FLY ROES. 



247 



waters they kill more fish with their heavier tackle than 

 an American working with them can kill with his light 

 rod. But the converse is also true, that the American on 

 our own waters with light tackle will kill more than the 

 Englishman with heavy rod. I imagine the reason to be 

 that the habits of the fish and their manner of taking the 

 fly are different, and the Englishman in his own waters 

 strikes his fish more securely with a heavy rod. Pos- 

 sibly, practice on the water would bring the American's 

 basket up to an equality. In my limited experience with 

 trout in England I have found difficulty in striking suc- 

 cessfully with my light rod, because, as it seemed to me, 

 of the very gentle manner the fish had of rising to the fly. 

 Yet at home there is no difficulty in striking the most 

 delicate rise. 



But when once you have hooked your fish the light rod 

 is vastly to be preferred, after becoming accustomed to 

 handle it, whatever and wherever be the water. For the 

 principle of the rod is in reality only this, that it is the 

 home end of the line, stiffened and made springy, so that 

 you can guide and manage it — cast and draw it, keep a 

 gentle pressure with it on the hook so that the fish shall 

 not rid himself of it, and finally lift him to the landing- 

 net. Let the young angler always remember that his rod 

 is only a part of the line. The control which a properly 

 constructed rod gives to the angler over his line and over 

 a large fish on it is wonderful. For ordinary lake-fish- 

 ing, American anglers are accustomed to cast from thirty 

 to sixty feet of line from the end of the rod. I have seen 

 an angler, under favorable circumstances, cast from a sev- 

 en-ounce Norris rod a straight cast of ninety-four feet 

 from the end of the rod, or, including the rod, a hundred 

 and five feet of line from the hand, and repeat the cast 



