The Rod and Line: Or, Practical Hints and Dainty Devices for the Sure Taking of Trout, Grayling, Etc.

First edition of this foundational text in fly fishing. Duodecimo, brown cloth with gilt titles to the spine, triple ruling and detailing stamped in blind to the front and rear panels, re-backed and re-cased, tissue-guarded frontispiece, illustrated with tissue-guarded colored plates. In very good condition, inscriptions to the half-title page and recto of the frontispiece. Hewett Wheatley’s The Rod and Line: Or, Practical Hints and Dainty Devices for the Sure Taking of Trout, Grayling (1849) is an influential mid-nineteenth-century angling manual that blends technical instruction with anecdote and an ethos of refined sport. Focused primarily on fly fishing for trout and grayling, the book offers detailed guidance on tackle, bait, and watercraft, while presenting “dainty devices” that emphasize precision and observation over brute force. It is also notable for its early discussion of eyed hooks for artificial flies, an innovation that helped shape later fly-tying practice.