The American Angler's Guide gives the following precautions relative to the care of rods and lines: When the fishing season is over, your rod should not be thrown carelessly by, but be cleaned, nicely oiled, and put away in a cool place, in readiness for the next campaign. The best of wood that a rod can be composed of, even though it be kiln-dried, if exposed a length of time in a dry atmosphere will shrink some, causing the ferules and guides to become loose. A moist atmosphere is preferable to a dry one. When rods that have not the ends covered where the joints are put together, become by a day's service swelled and difficult to separate, hold the ferule over a candle or lighted paper until it becomes sufficiently hot to dry out the moisture, and the parts can be easily separated. To prevent this annoyance, occasionally oil the wooden part that is let into the socket.

Lines

Many adepts in the art are careless and neglectful of their lines, often leaving them (when soaked with water) on their rods, in which wet state, if they long continue, they are apt to mildew and rot. Every line, immediately after being used, should be run off from the reel and laid out freely, or stretched on pegs to dry. Should they have been lying by for any length of time, they should be thoroughly examined and tried in every part before using. Lines will chafe and fray out by constant wear, and many large fish are often lost by carelessness in these small but important matters.

To Tie A Hook To A Gut Or Line

Prepare, by waxing with shoemaker's wax, a piece of strong silk or thread; take your hook in your left hand between your thumb and forefinger, about as high up as the point of the barb or a little higher, as you may fancy; place the end of your silk under your thumb, take three or four random but firm turns around the shank of the hook until you reach the end (for the purpose of preventing the gut being cut by the hook, and moreover that your gut may stick firmly without the possibility of coming off;) now lay your gut or line (the inside of the hook, up) on to this winding, holding it with the end of the thumb, and commence whipping it around firmly and closely, occasionally pressing the turns to keep them even; continue this operation until you get within three or four turns of the finishing point; in order to fasten firmly - give three loose turns, then insert the end of your silk under them, and drawing it through, you have a secure fastening, called the hidden knot. Another method of finishing when you have arrived at the fastening point, is to make two or three half hitch knots; this is done by passing the end under one turn of the silk, making a loop, and drawing it down. The hidden knot is the better and most secure mode.

To Repair A Broken Joint

Should you be so unfortunate as to break a top or joint, which misfortune, brother angler, has happened to many a very careful and scientific sportsman before you - proceed in this manner. Take your two broken parts, and with your knife, or a plane if you can get one, smooth down each part in an oblique direction, fitting them closely together, and rubbing some shoemaker's wax on to the parts to make them stick ; now take a long length of waxed thread or silk and wind it around, similar to the commencement of hook-tying, merely to keep the parts together, continuing it a little beyond the extreme end of the fracture ; then carefully and firmly whip it evenly around until you pass the other end of the fracture; here halt, and wind the three last turns on the forefinger of the left hand, extended for that purpose; now pass the end of the silk or thread under the windings, carefully drawing out your finger, and pull it through, and you have the hidden or inverted knot, as before described. Be careful in finishing, see that your thread does not get loose, and your whippings are firm and even. In all cases of winding, see that your silk is well waxed.