LET US GO AFIELD 



gan, concluded to alter the type of the rod, which 

 heretofore had been a three-piece rod. He took an- 

 ordinary piece of Calcutta cane with no joint in it 

 at all, and fastened it in a grip just large enough to 

 hold a reel-seat he made the latter out of a bicycle 

 handle. His rod, practically a single-piece stick, 

 was a trifle over six feet in length. It was simply 

 a stick for propelling something just as a boy 

 throws a crabapple from a short bough. The newest 

 idea about it was that of the guides. The rod had 

 but two guides, two and a fourth inches and one 

 and seven-eighths inches respectively, with a tip 

 guide which measured one-half inch in diameter. 

 It was found that by the use of these large guides 

 the line ran very freely. There was not a great deal 

 of style about this Kalamazoo rod, but it "got 

 there" just the same. 



This rod was made in the fall of 1896, and dur- 

 ing that winter the maker got out another model 

 consisting of a single joint of lancewood four feet 

 in length, with a twelve-inch handle. This may be 

 called the father of the average bait-casting rod of 

 today, which quite commonly consists of a single 

 joint and a butt piece. The guides on this later rod 

 were one and a half inches and one and a fourth 

 inches respectively, in diameter, and the top guide 

 three-fourths of an inch. The principle of large 



30 



