HINTS FOR BEGINNERS. 17 
that-is required, which you counteract by surplus lead, as 
friction is increased and so power wasted. 
Old hands may smile after reading the above, and justly 
say, “The fellow has told us nothing new;” but remember 
we are not all old hands, and that there are many begin- 
ners, for whose benefit these hints are given. 
The fly-rod, like the gun, can not be too light, as long as 
it possesses the requisite strength; for while fishing it is 
incessantly at work, the respite for loading not even being 
granted; thus if a heavy gun after a hard day’s work will 
make you undershoot your game, a heavy rod will have a 
greater tendency to make you a sluggard at evening in 
striking your fish, and the result will be about similar in 
both instances. For the trout fisherman—he, I mean, who 
fly-fishes burns and rivers—from twelve to thirteen feet 
is quite sufficient length for his rod to be (lake fisher- 
men frequently use longer, but what they gain in reach 
they lose in quickness, a loss, in my estimation, of most 
serious importance), and such a rod should not exceed in 
weight eight or nine ounces. I can imagine I see many 
cast up their eyes and exclaim that. such is impossible to 
procure, but let me say they are mistaken. I have owned 
several of that weight, and with them, days in succession, 
have taken baskets of fish, of not only all the ordinary sizes, 
but on one occasion killed a trout nine pounds in weight. 
As I can not help regarding this as a performance to be 
proud of, I will relate how it took place. A couple of com- 
panions and myself were encamped on the margin of Mad 
River, in Oxford County, Maine. Our guns had failed to 
provide dinner, so taking a hazel wand I essayed to cap- 
ture sufficient chub to make a chowder, a description of 
olla podrida stew. Having hooked a small fish, I was 
about lifting it into the canoe when a large trout rushed- 
from underneath the birch-bark, seized the chub, and al- 
