REELS THEIR USE AND ABUSE. 543 



can be more annoying, and I might say heart-rending, than 

 to have your reel give way at a critical moment, when a 

 "champion catch" is tugging away at the end of your line; or 

 equally sad and terrible is it to have a handle drop off or a 

 screw work out and be lost, when you are far away from 

 shop and civilization, leaving you helpless as a "condemned 

 soul without claws," to watch the sport go on and gnash 

 your teeth in agony. 



In order to avoid such misfortunes as above mentioned, 

 and to furnish the Angler with an article he can depend on, 

 a great deal of care and time, to say nothing of money, has 

 been spent to perfect a reel to stand hard use and rough 

 trips, and stay with him "from start to finish." In this broad 

 land of ours, a man can find a reel, like everything else, to 

 fit anj>. purse. 



There are many different kinds of reels made, of various 

 shapes and at various prices; but when you get one because 

 it is cheap, you must expect a very unsatisfactory affair, and 

 must prepare yourself for many a troublesome accident; for 

 a good article cannot be made cheap. 



The cheapest is the common spool, with handle riveted 

 directly to spool-bar; and the bearings of the bar at center 

 of reel-plates. A good pattern of this form will allow you 

 to cast fairly well, but when you begin to draw in your line, 

 the trouble begins, for you lack speed. There are some 

 styles of this spool made though, tall and narrow; this 

 increases the diameter, and by mere size causes the line to 

 be reeled in quite rapidly. 



The click-reel is of this style, being a spool with a perma- 

 nent click attached. This is used only for fly-fishing, vvhere 

 an easy, free-running reel could not be used, because the rod 

 is caught above the spool and the line drawn off and whipped 

 over the water. 



Then there is the automatic reel. This implement 

 handles the fish literally on its own hook, and a sports- 



