Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-05-06
The Model Fishing.rOd.


The rod should be of the best whatever mate
rial it may be made from. Lancewood. green
heart, bethabara, and many other woods are
capable of being converted into an excellent
fiy-rod, provided the material is good of its
kind, and it has been fashioned by the hands Of
a skilled workman. Rent and glued-or as 1t
is now more generally termed, spiit-bamboo
unquestionably stands first as material in the
general estimation of experts in this country.
In the H. -casting tournaments held year after
year at Central park in New York it has gradu-
ally supplanted all other kinds of rod and GER
tainly in it strength lfghtness and that steely
spring which is the acme of per lection in a fly
rod found to a degree uneQualed In any
other known material
These rods are made by gluing six strips of
Calcutta bamboo together in such a way that a
agon. The rind of the bamboo is placed on the
outside, and is untouched in the manufacture
since therein lie all the virtues that the mate
The variety of bamboo used for this purpose
may be distinguished by the charred marks on
its yellow cuticle, without which none seems
to be imported into this country. No one in
the least familiar with this bamboo can have
failed to remark these burns, always present,
yet never alike. To the split bamboo rod
ker they are perfect nuisance, forcing him to
reject altogether many cane otherwise excel
lent. so every one, surprised that so much
labor should be expended merely, as far as is
apparent, to injure the cane, naturally asks why
this is done.
Reasons are as plenty as blackberries and So
of course, there is no lack in this case Here are
few samples, assigned by those who said they
knew all about it:
l. IT is a religious ceremony.
2. They are roasted over II large gridiron to
kill the Larvae of boring insects.
g. 1t is merely for purpose of ornament
T. The bambOOs grow in jungies matted to-
gether with all manner of climbing and tena-
cious vines; before they can be extricated the
jungle must be fired to destroy these creepers.
8. That the canes are roasted over q gridiron
to burn off the lie ives and creepers attached to
them, as the most simple and expeditions way
8. That it is done with a hot iron each cane
being treated separately, merely to straighten
them.
l have heard Others but these are quite suffi-
Gent for liberal exercise of personal predilec-
ton, my own being toward a combination of
the reasons numbered and &.
Different specimens Of every variety of rod
material vary greatly in excellence, one sample
being good and another utterly worthless.
Therein the integrity of the rod-maker and re-
gard for his reputation, are the only safeguards
to the purchaser. Therefore, it is cheaper in
the end to buy from the maker himself, or his
recognized agent. II they have reputation,
they will do their best to maintain it, Anony-
may be unexceptionable. but usually they are
not. Above all things, remember there are no
bargains in fishing-tackle If an article is cheap
as we'll s>'''''''
Comfort in use, efficiency in casting the fly,
and power to control and land the fish after it
is fastened, all will admit, are the desiderata in
a Thyroid; strength to Withstand the incidental
strain. and elasticity to recover on the removal
OF the DETECTION caused thereby, being in all
cases presumed.
1t needs no expert physicist to assure us that
with two rods of equal weight, and respectively
ten and twelve feet long, the former will Occ;l-
sion far less fatigue than the LATTER since while
the shorter arm of the lever is equal in both
cases, the longer arm, which is to do the work,
is greater in the latter. Nay, further, even
though the shorter rod exceed in actual weight
still may retain its superiority in this respect.
Killing power, and the ability to control the
movements of the fish, depend not on the
length, but on the power or Stiffness of the rod;
and this, other things being equal, must be
greater in ten than in a twelve foot rod since
the leverage against the controlling power is
less.-H. +. Wells, in Hdrper's Magazine.