Have Sabbath Stick, will travel!

[Darjeeling]

Hello folks,

here's an interesting little project, or whimsy, some might say..

I have recently acquired a "Sabbath Stick' - or "poachers pole' as it may less politely be called. To the uninitiated (which included myself until about a week ago) a Sabbath Stick is fishing rod disguised as gentleman's walking cane, by dint of hidden sections within. Mine is from the 1800's at which time Sunday angling was prohibited or as best highly frowned upon by the church. The Sabbath Stick provided a covert means to carry a rod to the river to fish. I've made up some horsehair casting lines and it casts them a treat, so I thought I would take it all to some little streams and try to catch a wild brownie or three on the fly, in 1800's style.

I've already had success this way with a traditional Japanese bamboo pole (tenkara) and home made horsehair line, although the tippet was modern mono. This time with the Sabbath Stick I'm going to try the flies tied directly to a two or three horsehair snood. The trout in my stream are small so should be pretty do-able.

I'm wondering if one else out there has tried similar?

Heres a couple of pictures of the Stick and also of my traditional Japanese bamboo fixed line fly rod with horsehair line on stream.

[Dave Burr]

What a fun project, I wish you luck.

The ol' walking canes were devious things. My granddad had a lovely original sword stick that he later left and lost in the woods. Others concealed a single shot gun, mind you, walking to the river with three canes would always be a tad suspicious.

[Deaf Cat]

A wonderful thing.

I look forward to your meeting with a river keeper while “going equipped”

[Fredline]

That is a nice item. I bought one very similar at Romsey a couple of years ago but have not used it yet. I will now.
viewtopic.php?p=347433#p347433

[Mr B]

What a interesting walking stick, love it.
I looked at the link above too, very interesting.
How do you join the Horse hair? What knot? Splice? I have never tried it but Im off to my friends riding school!!!
Great stuff.

Mr B

[Mr B]

Well, I could resist it..
I know there will loads of information out there but this was very interesting an looks dead easy.
From our Friends across the pond.

[Darjeeling]

What a interesting walking stick, love it.
I looked at the link above too, very interesting.
How do you join the Horse hair? What knot? Splice? I have never tried it but Im off to my friends riding school!!!
Great stuff.

Mr B

Hello Mr B

The horsehair line is quite easy to make but there is a nack to it. I hand furl mine, starting with a simple overhand knot to lock the ends together, then I roll the strands together between finger and thumb to furl them. Another overhand knot at the end and now I have a ‘snood’ about 2ft long. When I have enough snoods to make a line of the length I want, I join then with a two turn water knot then trim the tag end off with the original overhand knot. You can design your own taper by altering how many hairs in each snood but I prefer a level line. Four strands gives a breaking strain of about 3 1/2 lbs.

Cheers !

[Rutland Rod]

My little fishing club est 1889 had a large number of sporting parsons, no fly only in those days on the Welland and Eyebrook stream any method and bait allowed, your set up would have Im sure be favoured !

[Darjeeling]

Well, I could resist it..
I know there will loads of information out there but this was very interesting an looks dead easy.
From our Friends across the pond.

Nice video, thanks for sharing. The method I use is essentially the same, just slightly different finger positions that allow a greater number of hairs to be furled if needed. I learned the Japanese style where, interestingly, dark stallion hair is highly prized. I use dark hair up until the last snood where I switch to white horse hair for better visibility for me but less for the trout !

[Darjeeling]

A wonderful thing.

I look forward to your meeting with a river keeper while “going equipped”

just as well I am a bailiff for the beat then!