May ii, 1907-] FOREST AND STREAM. 741 
Maryland Fishing News. 
Silk for Rod Winding. 
Amateur fishing rod makers experience dif- 
iculty in obtaining silk of suitable sizes for 
.vinding their rods. Those who live in the 
nland cities and in small towns can only ob- 
ain size A or larger, which is too coarse for 
ly-rods and for the slender bait-casting rods 
ised so much in bass fishing and in tourna¬ 
ment casting. No silk finer than A is carried 
jy dry goods firms, but in this size every im- 
tginable color and shade may be had. 
To be sure, the fishing tackle dealers gen¬ 
erally carry O and OO in red, green, yellow 
ind black; but if one is particular and asks 
for a certain shade, the dealer does not al¬ 
ways happen to have it, and the next shade 
nay prove disappointing if the buyer happens 
to have part of his winding finished and de¬ 
sires a shade that will match nicely. The 
wholesale silk houses will not sell to an in¬ 
dividual in smaller lots than a gross, as a 
rule, although they may sometimes condescend 
to let him have a dozen spools. No amateur 
could possibly use the silk from a dozen 
spools in a lifetime, even if he were to wind 
every one of his rods solidly with it, and after 
several disappointments he is likely to fall 
back on A, even if it does finish up in lumps 
and welts that are not in keeping with the 
careful work he has put on the other details 
of his rod. 
There is one advantage in size A, however : 
every little store handling dry goods carries 
all colors and every shade that will match 
dress goods of silk, cotton or wool. If you 
have never noticed this, ask a saleswoman 
for a spool of green silk, and she will show 
you a score or more, and every one a different 
shade of green. No wonder you cannot buy 
silk by mail that will suit you! 
In selecting silk there is always the tempta- 
i tion to purchase more than one can ever use 
or give away, particularly shades that will 
disappoint you if wound on the rod and var¬ 
nished. There are certain combinations that 
do not give the barber-pole effect so many 
' anglers object to, yet are durable as to color. 
Black is a hideous color for a nice rod, but 
it looks well as borders for yellow or orange. 
I Some shades of yellow lose all color under the 
varnish, and cream color becomes semi-trans- • 
I parent, and is often employed for that very 
I reason. Blue, lilac and pale red lose color 
rapidly when exposed to the sun, and purple, 
often seen on some rods, is not always lasting. 
Bright red and the lighter shades of green 
are generally satisfactory, but their brilliancy 
j depends a great deal on what sort of varnish 
protects them from the wearing of the line in 
| casting—particularly if put on a fly-rod. 
This is how size A silk can be made to an¬ 
swer every requirement, and a lasting supply 
t always ar hand in the nearest dry goods store: 
Having selected the colors desired, wind the 
I guides and ferrules—if split or serrated—with 
this size (A) waxed. If the ferrule and guide 
windings are to have borders of another color, 
, leave these until the last thing. Take a spool 
of A and cut off a piece a foot long, waxing 
this a trifle more than usual, until it is pretty 
thoroughly filled with the wax, which must be 
1 colorless and free from foreign matter that 
will darken the silk. Twist this piece of silk 
in the opposite direction to that followed in 
its manufacture, so that the strands will sep¬ 
arate, and hold them apart until each one of 
the three can be removed and laid aside. 
| Now take up one of the strands and wax it 
thoroughly, having the wax warm. It will 
remain a trifle kinky, but that will not matter. 
After it is waxed, it will cease trying to snarl 
up, as at first, and you. will have a really 
strong thread of silk floss much softer than 
the three-ply strand from which it was taken. 
Try it on the thin tip of a fly-rod, and you 
will notice that in winding it will lie flat and 
| spread out 'a trifle, like a ribbon, while it will 
not look as lumpy, even, as a thread of OO 
silk, and after the rod has been varnished the 
windings will be very neat and workmanlike. 
It is obvious that this thread is not as 
strong as three-ply, and a little experimenting 
is necessary to determine how much strain it 
will bear without breaking. It is stronger, 
however, than would be supposed, and I have 
wound a fly-rod tip about three and a half 
feet long with strands of O without breaking 
more than three all told; so that the A strands 
will give little trouble on this score if prop¬ 
erly waxed. 
Of course, in employing this method, you 
cannot work from the spool, but must cut off 
suitable lengths and wax and separate the 
strands before beginning to wind. This is 
more tedious than employing silk direct from 
the spool, but you have the advantage of pre¬ 
paring the material for three windings each 
time, and a little experimenting will deter¬ 
mine how much to cut for certain work. A 
strand fifteen inches in length will make four 
or five narrow windings for a fly-rod tip, but 
for the joint and butt much longer strands will 
be necessary, and any way the waste is in¬ 
significant. 
Because of the flat, ribbon-like form of the 
separated strands, fewer turns to each wind¬ 
ing will be the rule than if OO were used; 
but the silk is so thin when tightly wound 
that no objections can be raised to its bulk. 
Given a coat of shellac on the silk only, and 
the entire rod then coated with the best light 
coach varnish, put on while quite warm, the 
rod will be a work of art, and a finger rubbed 
over its length will barely feel the windings. 
Two coats of coach varnish would be better, 
and if the varnish can is placed in a vessel 
of hot water ten minutes before varnishing is 
begun and left there during this operation, 
the result will be a rapid-drying finish of high 
lustre that will wear well. 
Finally, the thinner the silk employed in 
windings, the less will they be cut and frayed 
by the fly line. A great many of our enam¬ 
eled fly lines break, or, rather, the enamel 
breaks in places if much used, so that the line 
is not smooth and wiry as when new, and such 
a line wears the windings rapidly, particu¬ 
larly those in which large sizes of silk are 
used. I have seen new fly-rods with every 
winding on the tips cut entirely through after 
a few days’ use, necessitating considerable ex¬ 
pense in renewing windings and varnish; but 
this is often due to insufficient warnish in the 
first place, or to coating the rod with shellac 
instead of good varnish. It is much less 
trouble and cheaper to shellac windings, rod 
and all at one time than to shellac the wind¬ 
ings, then varnish over all, two coats; but it 
is not so satisfactory to the owner of the rod. 
Perry D. Frazer. 
Kansas City Fly and Bait-Casting Club. 
Kansas City, Mo., April 23 . —Editor Forest 
and Stream: The opening contest of the Kansas 
City Bait- and Fly-casting Club for the season 
was held at Rocks Lagoon to-day as per schedule. 
Twenty-two casters were present, which was con¬ 
sidered good for the opening. The programme 
consisted of a team contest open to members of 
the club, captained by J. W. Bramhall and C. E. 
Cheney. The work done by the casters was good 
for the first day of the season. After the team 
contest came the fly-casting event: 
Event 1, team contest, 14-ounce, 60, 65, 70, 75 and SO 
feet distance, five casts at each distance. 
Bramhall . 
.98 7-15 
Casey . 
.97 14-15 
Lathrop . 
.97 12-15 
Hite . 
.97 12-15 
Kerner . 
.97 10-15 
Cheney .. 
Robirds . 
.97 10-15 
C HTnith . 
.97 5-15 
Meir . 
.97 9-15 
La Brie . 
.97 4-15 
Davis . 
.96 12-15 
Robinson . 
.96 8-15 
Rock . 
.96 11-15 
Hollingsworth 
....96 8-15 
Shuff . 
.95 14-15 
Tones . 
.94 13-15 
Clarke . 
.95 13-15 
A Smith . 
.93 7-15 
Westvelt .. 
Osmond . 
.93 12-15 
,9S 3-15 
Doughty . 
.92 
Event 2, fly-casting, targets 50 , 55 and 60 
casts at each distance: 
1 feet, five 
Bramhall . 
.98 10-15 
Clarke . 
.97 2-15 
La Brie . 
Robinson . 
.97 6-15 
.97 3-15 
Shuff . 
J. s. 
.97 1-15 
Davis. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order 
supply you regularly. 
Ask your 
dea'er to 
Baltimore, Md., May 4 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I send you the following from the Bal¬ 
timore Evening News: “The residents of Balti¬ 
more county in the vicinity of White Marsh are 
having fine sport as the result of the annual run 
of herring toward the headwaters of White 
Marsh run. Every spring great schools of herr¬ 
ing make for the shallow waters of the run to 
drop their spawn and the water is fairly alive 
with the fish. A note from White Marsh states 
that the run began April 29. In some places it 
was stated the herring became so numerous that 
they completely filled up the stream. At these 
points many of the residents, who are always 
looking forward to the herring run, stood on the 
banks of the stream and dipped out the fish by 
the basketful. The herring so- caught are salted 
down.” 
The work of transforming the tract of about 
forty acres at Orange Grove, Md., recently do¬ 
nated to the State by John M. Glenn, into a 
model forest has been started under the direction 
of the State Forester, F. W. Besley. The tract 
is near the Patapsco Valley. A warden will be 
appointed to look after the reservation. 
The hatching and distributing of fish at the 
hatchery in Druid Hill Park is progressing on a 
large and active scale. State Fish Commissioner 
Charles F. Brooke, for the western shore, is 
superintending in person. Ten millions of yellow 
perch have been placed in Back River, Patapsco, 
Patuxent, Northwest and Hawlins rivers. Seven 
hundred thousand trout have been hatched and 
will be placed in the trout streams of Maryland 
by the middle of May. Eighteen thousand rain¬ 
bow trout have been hatched at the Government 
Fishery, Washington, and distributed. The shad 
hatchery will commence May 10 . W. J. Reed. 
Salt for Salt-Water Fish. 
The writer who furnishes one of the New 
York daily papers with “fishing news” collects 
some curious paragraphs now and then. I11 one 
of them, it was stated, a few days ago, that the 
deep-sea fishermen on a certain steamer that 
makes daily trips for their benefit had on the 
previous day brought back 614 codfish averaging 
20 pounds each. Evidently the proverbial grain 
of salt would be large if of sufficient size to 
render this yarn fit for swallowing. 
Fly-Tying Materials. 
“In noticing some Redditch fishing tackle and 
flies recently, I pointed out that it was a pity 
the Redditch fly-makers did not take more trouble 
to get their colors right,” says Mr. R. B. Mars- 
ton in the Fishing Gazette. “Redditch can and 
does turn out perfect flies now, but the output 
of these is nothing compared w-ith the hundreds 
of thousands of flies turned out every season— 
flies which are very often well made and on 
good hooks, but being composed of cheap rubbish 
in the shape of feathers, hackles, etc., they bear 
about the same comparison to the real pattern 
of the standard flies they are supposed to repre¬ 
sent as a cheap chromo does to a fine oil paint¬ 
ing. Of course, it is impossible to expect to 
find in flies made in such quantities, and so cheap, 
the perfect natural hackles which the amateur 
who makes his own flies can afford to collect. 
But there is no reason why lifeless, flabby, dull, 
common, barnyard stuff should be used when 
there is any amount of good material, which only 
requires coloring properly. Our standard works 
on fly-dressing contain recipes for bleaching and 
dyeing which, when applied to good materials, 
give excellent results—not so good as the real 
thing, the good, natural hackle or feather with 
the natural color, but far better than poor natural 
material dyed or undyed. I think it would pay 
wholesale makers of artificial flies to give far 
more attention to this matter. Of course, they 
do dye now, but they too often (judging by re¬ 
sults in the shape of salmon flies. May flies, and 
smaller flies which one sees) dye bad stuff in 
crude, garish yellows, greens, blues, reds, and. 
worst of all, magentas. I think magenta is 
simply a brutal color in a fly, whether trout or 
(.Continued on page 758.) 
1 
