Woodcraft | Page 5

that can be procured. He might do worse. A practical every
day sportsman whose income is limited will find that a more modest
product will drop his flies on the water quite as attractively to Salmo
fontinalis. My little 8 1/2 foot, 4 1/2 ounce split bamboo which the
editor of Forest and Stream had made for me cost $10.00. I have given
it hard usage and at times large trout have tested it severely, but it has
never failed me. The dimensions of my second rod are 9 1/2 feet long
and 5 ounces in weight. This rod will handle the bucktail spinners

which I use for trout and bass, when other things have failed. I used a
rod of this description for several summers both in Adirondack and
western waters. It had a hand-made reel seat, agate first guide, was
satisfactory in every respect and I could see in balance, action and
appearance no superiority in a rod costing $25.00, which one of my
friends sported. Charles Dudley Warner, who writes charmingly of
woods life, has the following in regard to trout fishing, which is so
neatly humorous that it will bear repeating:
"It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever
kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the part
of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated trout in
unfrequented waters prefers the bait; and the rural people, whose sole
object in going a-fishing appears to be to catch fish, indulge them in
their primitive state for the worm. No sportsman, however, will use
anything but a fly except he happens to be alone." Speaking of rods, he
says:
"The rod is a bamboo weighing seven ounces, which has to be spliced
with a winding of silk thread every time it is used. This is a tedious
process; but, by fastening the joints in this way, a uniform spring is
secured in the rod. No one devoted to high art would think of using a
socket joint."
One summer during a seven weeks' tour in the Northern Wilderness,
my only rod was a 7 1/2 foot Henshall. It came to hand with two
bait-tips only; but I added a fly-tip and it made an excellent "general
fishing rod." With it I could handle a large bass or pickerel; it was a
capital bait-rod for brook trout; as fly-rod it has pleased me well
enough. It is likely to go with me again. For reel casting, the 5 1/2 foot
rod is handier. But it is not yet decided which is best and I leave every
man his own opinion. Only, I think one rod enough, but have always
had more.
And don't neglect to take what sailors call a "ditty-bag." This may be a
little sack of chamois leather about 4 inches wide by 6 inches in length.
Mine is before me as I write. Emptying the contents, I find it
inventories as follows: A dozen hooks, running in size from small

minnow hooks to large Limericks; four lines of six yards each, varying
from the finest to a size sufficient for a ten-pound fish; three darning
needles and a few common sewing needles; a dozen buttons; sewing
silk; thread and a small ball of strong yarn for darning socks; sticking
salve; a bit of shoemaker's wax; beeswax; sinkers and a very fine file
for sharpening hooks. The ditty-bag weighs, with contents, 2 1/2
ounces; and it goes in a small buckskin bullet pouch, which I wear
almost as constantly as my hat. The pouch has a sheath strongly sewed
on the back side of it, where the light hunting knife is always at hand,
and it also carries a two-ounce vial of fly medicine, a vial of "pain
killer," and two or three gangs of hooks on brass wire snells--of which,
more in another place. I can always go down into that pouch for a
waterproof match safe, strings, compass, bits of linen and scarlet
flannel (for frogging), copper tacks and other light duffle. It is about as
handy a piece of woods-kit as I carry.
I hope no aesthetic devotee of the fly-rod will lay down the book in
disgust when I confess to a weakness for frogging. I admit that it is not
high-toned sport; and yet I have got a good deal of amusement out of it.
The persistence with which a large batrachian will snap at a bit of red
flannel after being several times hooked on the same lure and the
comical way in which he will scuttle off with a quick succession of
short jumps after each release; the cheerful manner in which, after each
bout, he will tune up his deep, bass pipe--ready for another greedy snap
at