138 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



make a cast with it as it does to cast a Salmon-fly. The bait 

 must go to its destination at once, or the Hne has to be reeled 

 in and a fresh cast made; there can be no retrieving the 

 shortcomings of the first attempt, as can be done with the 

 Salmon or Trout rod. When the bait is started on its flight 

 through the air, the reel, if a fine one, pays out the line 

 much faster than the weight of the bait can carry it off, and 

 if not checked by the thumb, the line overruns and forms 

 a disagreeable snarl on the barrel of the reel — the great art 

 being to know just how much pressure of the thumb is req- 

 uisite to have the line render only as fast as the bait will 

 carry it. 



The graceful ease with which the old Bass angler makes 

 his cast is misleading to the tyro. His rod is thrown back 

 with about two and one-half feet of line for play; a rather 

 slow movement of the tip, not a sudden jerk, forward, and 

 the bait, describing a graceful curve, drops noiselessly in the 

 water, within a few inches of where he intended it should. 

 This is done so easily and with so little apparent exertion 

 of strength or skill, that the tyro seizes his rod with con- 

 fidence and essays to do the like; the lesult is usually dis- 

 astrous. 



The longest cast on record is that of Mr. W. H. Wood, 

 made at the tournament of the National Rod and Reel Asso- 

 ciation at Central Park, where, with a two and one-half ounce 

 sinker, the average weight of a Menhaden or Lobster-tail 

 bait, he cast two hundred and sixty and one-tenth feet. 

 This has never been approached. I was present as an officer 

 of the Association and saw the cast measured. 



The reel used in Bass-fishing is a multiplier — that is, the 

 barrel revolves twice for every turn of the crank — and is 

 made of German-silver or brass, though the finest reels have 

 the caps and sides of hard rubber, thus avoiding the weight of 

 solid metal which is the great objection to large reels. The 

 size varies with the locality. In the creeks and estuaries of 



