m*- w - Clpdigital.org

730 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
of trout enameled line. You won't use
that much, ordinarily; you tie ten cents'
worth of cheap cotton line to the trout line
and wind it on the reel first for a filler,
leaving space for more line if you want
to fish a wide river, and giving a bigger
reel and faster winding. Also it's single
action, wdiich means that the spindle
turns once for every revolution of the
handle, instead of being geared up.
"Lines? A half-dozen 'level' enameled
lines, size F, and one 40-yard size E.
There are tapered lines, but you'll get
ir.to that stuff as you get deeper into the
game. The half dozen I'm putting in are
75 feet long—and, as I told you, a core
of cheap cotton line must be wound on
the reel ahead of this one to use up the
extra room with the 75 foot length.
"Flies? If you had, say, a week, I
think by cutting down on time for meals
and sleep, we might get fairly into the
subject—and probably into an argument
if some other fisherman overheard us.
Without reasoning with you I'll put in a
good solid leather fly-book that'll cost
you two fifty and is worth it. Holds
eight dozen flies and some leaders and is
covered with pig-skin. Got cheaper
ones; one here for a dollar and a quarter
that's not pasteboard and glue like some
of these lemons, but you'll finally get the
bigger and better one, anyhow. Also a
dozen leaders and a leader box with pad
to keep them moist. A dry leader is
slightly harder to handle than a coil of
trolley wire and won't stand so much
abuse. And now the flies. You can get
them out of stock costing a dollar and a
half a dozen ; good ones—good enough
and to spare for a tenderfoot to lose on
overhead boughs and underfoot snags—•
cost a dollar. For a starter, a half dozen
each tied on No. 10 hooks; anything
needing a bigger hook will probably separate
you from your leader and flies anyhow,
at first. Of the kind—taking six
of each under the impression that you
can mooch on your friend when you lose
all you've got—we'll put in Coachman,
Grizzly King. Queen of the Waters,
Brown Hackle," White Miller, Cahill,
Silver Doctor, and Professor. They'll
be enough to exhaust the diet possibili­
ties of the trout, coupled with what
patience you've got.
"That'll take care of the trout end of
the game, although I could say ten or
twenty thousand more kind words of
advice if you had time.
"Now, for the rest of the bass-teasing
layout. The bait-casting reel is the important
part of the outfit, just as the
reel isn't in the trout equipment. When
you hurl a two-ounce bait a hundred
feet or so through the air and the reel
has to supply the line needed, it turns
about one thousand R.P.M. to keep up
with the demand. Also it immediately
comes into action retrieving the line—
and maybe the fish when things break
right. So we want a good reel, and for
the sake of quick action, a multiplying
reel, which means that for every turn of
the handle the spindle turns four times.
"When the bait hits the water and the
line quits running, the reel, having an
elegant start and a speed like an electric
fan, keeps on running, winds the line
the wrong way or unwinds it all over the
place, and presents you with what is
called a backlash—usually with qualify­
ing adjectives. You'll never talk like
a fisherman until you've had one or two.
If a fish will kindly strike in the midst of
your snarl, the occasion becomes a bright
spot in your memory. To squelch this
tendency, reels are made that automatically
brake at the right time, and are
termed anti-backlash. You can let this
sort go until your education has reached
a higher plane and in the meantime
learn to use your thumb for a brake and
use it at the right time, which brings the
skill of the bait-caster into play.
"A respectable reel costs $5.00, and
is worth it. Good ones have accurately
cut and finely adjusted steel gears and
bearings; finer ones have their bearings
jeweled like a watch. There is not a lot
of difference between the really good
bait-casting reel and a watch, at that.
"I'm going to start you in with this
(Continued on page 782)