TACKLE (Continued) : Page 60

The best place to store a rod not in use is in a dry room of cool and even temperature. Hang it up by the tip if possible, and it will always keep straight; otherwise hang each joint small end up. If the tips have a set straighten them carefully with the hands and suspend them with a small weight at the lower end.

If kept in a warm room, especially where there is steam heat, the wood will expand and shrink with the varying temperature and this will loosen the ferrules. Go over your rods early in the spring and either send them to the tackle repair shop or put them in shape

yourself. Frayed windings, and sometimes all of them, should be renewed, shaky ferrules reset and the rod given several coats of good varnish applied with a camel hair brush in a warm room and dried where dust cannot get at it. In fact frequent varnishing is " heap good medicine" for wood and bamboo rods and one could pervert a proverb in this connection: Spare the varnish and spoil the rod. If the tips have developed a tendency toward " softness" renew the windings at closer intervals. If you must keep your rod on its form be careful not to tie the strings too tightly.