20 SPRING ANGLING 



screwed into the pole if the wood is hard ; but there 

 is always a weak spot where they are screwed. I 

 prefer at all times the wire guides. 



The whipping or binding of the rings requires a 

 word of explanation. Fig. 9 shows one of them 

 as it appears bound on to a pole. Go to your 

 shoemaker, and ask him for a piece of his wax 

 with which he waxes his shoe-thread, and get 

 some shoe-thread too, or use the spool-thread. 

 Wax it well, and bind on your rings evenly, as 

 shown, securing the whipping or binding by 

 means of two half-hitches (Fig. 9), for I will not 



Fig. 9. — Showing Double-hitcit 

 Fastening. 



now introduce you to the invisible knot ; that will 

 come later. Now apply some of your shellac 

 varnish (with which you varnished your rod) ; and 

 if you have been careful and neat, you have a ser- 

 viceable sucker, or bullhead, or "pumpkin-seed" 

 rod, just as capable of catching these fish as a 

 more expensive outfit. 



The kind of line you will use will depend on 



