BAIT CASTING FOR BASS 



machine work of American shops began to turn out 

 reels at fifteen dollars, ten dollars, eight dollars, 

 five dollars. They were not so good as the old hand- 

 made reels, but they were perfectly practical. Today 

 there are a score of makes of casting-reels on the 

 market, any one of which will deliver the goods 

 which is the purpose of sport, as one opines, today. 



Twenty-five years ago bait casting was not gen- 

 erally practiced and was, indeed, little known in the 

 eastern states. Really it was the city of Chicago 

 which first gave a big boom to bait casting for bass. 

 In the early developments of this school the old- 

 time gentleman's bass casting rod began to shorten. 

 It got down to about seven feet in length, and the 

 reel usually attached to it had shrunk in price. The 

 light, thin, raw silk line had been developed until it 

 was a practical proposition. With this equipment, 

 neat, compact, difficult to master but extremely effi- 

 cient when mastered, Chicago bass anglers began to 

 go south, west, east, and north and to bring back 

 bass when they came home. It soon was discovered 

 that a way had been found to beat the game of this 

 wiliest of game fishes. 



The average western bass casting rod which 

 sometimes was lancewood and sometimes split bam- 

 boo hung around seven feet from 1888 up until 

 about 1896. Then a man over in Kalamazoo, Michi- 



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