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between the before mentioned malleable
iron single barrel and fine double hammerless.
"Now here's a beauty little buggywhip
of a rod, weighs 2^ ounces, and is
9 feet long. Nice to handle, eh? Naw,
don't just do a flag-drill stunt with it;
put a little snap into it and see how it'd
feel if you were striking little troutie.
That's the extreme on the light side; a
beautiful little weapon in the hands of
the expert—on little trout, of course.
Your best bet for a one-rod equipment is
this boy, weight S l /2 ounces, length 9j^
feet. Ginger enough to put out line in
the face of the wind and to handle even
a four-pounder; long enough for nearly
any water, and too long for some. Of
course, the first dratted fisherman you
meet will disagree on one ground, and
the next one will disagree on another,
but you'd have to take along my whole
stock to suit even half of those you'll
meet; the rest want stuff made to order,
"YE-AH! SIX OF 'EM! AIN'T YOU JEALOUS?"
combination rod, one rod for both sorts
of fishing. The bass is a big-mouthed,
big-shouldered, Bob Fitzsimmons sort of
fish, that runs heavier than the trout.
He's tempted from his lair by baits, ordinarily,
artificial and natural, and these
baits are heavy and are handled in a different
manner from the trout fly. Sometimes
bass will take the fly, but for this
the trout rod is good enough. To handle
the heavy baits used, the rod is short and
stiff, usually about S l /> feet long instead
of 9y2 feet like the trout rod.
"You see, in hoisting out a tempting
viand to this black-bass roughneck, you
cast from the reel, that is, the artificial
minnow or pork rind or whatever you
use is dangling with about a foot of line
from the tip of the rod. You give a
good hearty overhead or side-swing
with the reel running free and your
thumb on it to check overenthusiasm,
and send that bait whizzing anywhere
from 50 to 100 feet through the air to
with, say, an eighth-ounce more in the the spot you suspect of harboring a bass,
second joint.
This is no stunt for the trout rod; don't
"The bass rod is a horse of another use a good rod that way, either, or you'll
shade of red—mebbe you'd prefer a take the pep out of it.