There is a great difference of opinion among anglers as to the amount of pliancy a fly-rod ought to possess. From the old-fashioned, heavy, stiff rod, we have gone to the other extreme, and had cane rods so light and whippy as to be entirely useless on a windy day; and now we have what is, in my opinion, a somewhat sensible reaction, and are coming back to a greenheart from ten to twelve feet long, of medium substance and pliability.
Such a rod, with an Acme line suited to it, and the whole adapted to the height and strength of the angler, ought to make good casting. Long casting may be showy, but in practice it is far better to cast lightly and accurately, and this tends to fill the basket much more than being able to get out an extra length. One piece of advice may be relied on: never part with a good rod after you have become accustomed to it. It is not only the pleasurable associations connected with it, but the confidence you have in it, and, through it, in yourself, enables you to kill fish with it.
With care, it may be made to last a lifetime. I used, the other day, at the International Tournament, a greenheart that I have used almost exclusively for about twelve years, and with which I have killed many hundred brace of trout. If, on the occasion referred to, I had used an Ogden and Scotford's multum in parvo, I believe I should have thrown two yards farther.
FLIES.
I see no reason to alter the list given in the first edition, indeed, subsequent experience has tended to confirm my opinion expressed therein.
Many old anglers say it is of no use in the May-fly season to try any other fly. I generally use a May-fly as stretcher, and a small Soldier-palmer as drop, and out of seventeen-and-a-half brace of trout caught last Whitsuntide in two half-days, one-third of them were caught on the Palmer. Others say it is useless to try a May-fly, except when the natural fly is out; but this is also subject to modification.
There have been two or three well-authenticated cases reported in the sporting journals lately, of fish having been killed some weeks before and after the season on Ephemera vulgata. Indeed, there has been seen in Ireland this autumn a second very strong rise of May-fly.
In the first edition I speak of the Grey-drake thus:—"This is said to be a metamorphosis of the green drake, or female, changing to a male." The passage should have read thus:—"This is said by some writers to be," &c.
I had not the slightest intention of giving that as a fact, or as my own opinion, knowing otherwise.