preferred. The tendency is to reduce rather than to
increase the length of the rod, which may be accounted for by the
adoption of a heavy line. Early in the 19th century anglers used
light-topped rods of 20 ft. and even more, and with them a light line
composed partly of horse-hair; they thought 60 ft. with such material
a good cast. Modern experience, however, has shown that a shorter rod
with a heavier top will throw a heavy dressed silk line much farther
with less exertion. Ninety feet is now considered a good fishing cast,
while many men can throw a great deal more. In the United States,
where rods have long been used much lighter than in England, the
limits suggested would be considered too high. From 12 ft. 6 in. to 15
ft. 6 in. is about the range of the American angler's choice, though
long rods are not unknown with him. The infinite variety of reels,
lines, gut collars[1] and other forms of tackle which is now presented
to the angler's consideration and for his bewilderment is too wide a
subject to be touched upon here. Something, however, falls to be said
about flies. One of the perennially fruitful topics of inquiry is what
the fish takes a salmon-fly to be. Beyond a fairly general admission
that it is regarded as something endowed with life, perhaps resembling
a remembered article of marine diet, perhaps inviting gastronomic
experiment, perhaps irritating merely and rousing an impulse to
destroy, the discussion has not reached any definite conclusion. But
more or less connected with it is the controversy as to variety of
colour and pattern. Some authorities hold that a great variety of
patterns with very minute differences in colour and shades of colour
is essential to complete success; others contend that salmon do not
differentiate between nice shades of colour, that they only draw
distinctions between flies broadly as being light, medium or dark in
general appearance, and that the size of a fly rather than its colour
is the important point for the angler's consideration. Others again
go some way with the supporters of the colour-scheme and admit the
efficacy of flies whose general character is red, or yellow, or black,
and so on. The opinion of the majority, however, is probably based on
past experience, and a man's favourite flies for different rivers
and condition of water are those with which he or someone else has
previously succeeded. It remains a fact that in most fly-books great
variety of patterns