EARLIEST REEL— TIGHT OR RUNNING LINE 9 



is figured in the title page of The Experienced Angler by their 

 contemporary Venables) and a crude winder, such as survives 

 to-day in our sea-fishing, but intended as an attachment to a 

 Rod.i 



This marks a logical and hkely step in evolution. It is 

 inconceivable that invention should have soared to a Reel 

 without there having been some intermediate stage between it 

 and the " tight " Hne. The advantage of extra line for 

 emergencies must have been recognised pretty early, and a 

 wire ring at the top of the Rod, through which the line could 

 run, naturally resulted from such recognition. 



The method of disposing of the " spare " hne may be 

 presumed from survival of primitive practice. Not many 

 years ago pike fishers in rustic parts of England often dispensed 

 with a reel. They either let their spare with a cork at its end 

 trail behind on the ground, or wound it on a bobbin or a piece 

 of wood, stowed away in a pocket. Nicholas explains Walton's 

 (chap. V.) " running Hne, that is to say, when you fish for a trout 

 by hand at the ground " as " a hne, so called, because it runs 

 along the ground." 



It seems impossible to fix with certainty the period at 

 which fishing with a running Hne made its first appearance. 

 No early data exist, nor do the few early pictures of mediaeval 

 rods indicate the presence of a wire top ring. I had a Hvely 

 hope, when I recalled its many plates and figures, of extracting 

 some guidance from the most important French work of early 



1 Dr. Turrell, the author of that researchful book. Ancient Angling 

 Authors, London, 1910, while of opinion that the " wheele " was in the course 

 of time evolved from the " wind " of the troUer, differentiates between their 

 uses in fishing. Barker " put in a wind to turn with a barrell, to gather up^ 

 his hne and loose at his pleasure: this was his manner of trouling." 

 Walton's words are, " a line of wire through which the hne may run to as 

 great a length as is needful when (the fish is) hook'd and for that end some 

 use a wheele," etc. The use of the " wind " as described by Barker in his 

 first edition was simply to gather up the slack hne in working the bait, " this 

 was the manner of his trouhng " ; while that of Walton's " wheele " was to 

 let the line go, in playing the rushes of salmon, of which his experience seems 

 mainly vicarious. 



Sea-anglers of the present day prefer in many cases man-handling the 

 line to using the reel : thus the Spanish fisherman on striking a tunny throws 

 the whole Rod back into the boat, the crew of which seize the Hne (which is 

 of great thickness) and haul the fish in by sheer brute force. (See The Rod on 

 the Rivieras (191 1), p. 232.) 



