90 SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



SO as to conform to the outward appearance and ostensible 

 construction of the Kentucky reel. Of course, this com- 

 bination reel was made to " sell." 



I have always advised those ordering the Kentucky reel 

 either to have the alarm spring made stiif enough to act as 

 a click, and to discard the drag; or to discard the alarm 

 altogether, and have the drag spring made light enough to 

 subserve the purposes of fly-fishing. I like the latter plan 

 the best. 



A very much needed reform has been introduced in re- 

 gard to the sizes of reel-plates, or cross bars. Heretofore, 

 reel-plates were made of any and all sizes; or, in case 

 where a manufacturer made both rods and reels, he fash- 

 ioned the reel-plate to fit the reel-seat on his own particular 

 rods, without reference to the reel-seats of rods of other 

 makers. Consequently, anglers have suffered very much in 

 the past through the non-fitting of reel-plates to reel-seats. 

 This evil became so aggravated that the National Rod and 

 Reel Association took cognizance of the matter, and after 

 conferring with the manufacturers as to the expediency and 

 desirability of adopting a uniformity in the sizes of reel- 

 plates and reel-seats, it Avas finally resolved, at a meeting 

 of the said society, that the standard size of reel- plates for 

 Black Bass and trout reels should be two and a half inches 

 long, one-half inch wide, with a curve made upon a circle 

 of an inch in diameter, and with a thickness at the ends of 

 the plate of one-fiftieth of an inch. Most of our manufac- 

 turers conform to this rule, and it is earnestly hoped that 

 all Avill eventually do so. 



The best reel-seat is the old shallow groove cut in the 

 wood, with reel-bands. It is lighter than any other reel 

 fastening, and subserves its purpose as well as any of the 



