Martin - Float fishing and spinning in the Nottingham

22 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.
they are open to strong objections, although I am aware that
there is a lot more profit to be made out of a machine-made
rod than out of one that is made by hand. (Let it be distinctly
understood by my readers that I am now writing as a
practical angler, and not as a rod and tackle maker.) I have
known the butts of machine-made rods to snap short off close
under the ferrule (owing, no doubt, to the tool in the lathe
slipping or nicking the wood a trifle just there), so I should
say, for practical purposes, have a good hand-made rod, even
if it is not so perfectly true or got up so smartly as a machinemade
one. A good float-fishing rod should be made with
plenty of timber in the butt, and tapered evenly and truly
right up to the point, so that it will strike a fish directly
from the point, and hook him in an instant, and then bend
to the weight of him in a perfectly true curve. Sometimes
the socket joints or ferrules of a rod split at the ends, and
to prevent this some makers have their ferrules ringed, that
is, double at each end. Now these double-ended ferrules are
to be objected to, and really are not required. I have found
that in nine cases out of ten, when the ferrule splits it is
because it is a tapered one, from end to end, with the smallest
end at top. Now the socket or counter that fits into this
tapered ferrule is straight, and fits tightly at one end, while
at the other end it is a little less, and consequently does not
fit close up. This, of course, flings all the weight on the
extreme end of the ferrule, and when a little extra strain has
to be put on, the ferrule is liable to split. The best plan is
to have your ferrules perfectly straight, with the counters
fitting exactly from end to end, and then just open or bell
out a trifle that end of the ferrule that grips the wood ; and
I might just add that the wood should not be shouldered
down to take the ferrule, so as to make wood and ferrule
quite level with each other, but it should, as it were, fit well
over, and tightly grip the wood. And another thing I have
seen in rods that must be objected to, and that is the pegs
that are on the bottom of the joints there is a hole bored
;
down the end of the joint to take this peg, and I have seen
this latter so very long and thick, that the hole has to be
bored down past the ferrule bottom on purpose to be of the