FROM LAND AND PIER 193 



After all it is only the first rung or two of the Nottingham 

 ladder which presents any difficulty. After they have been 

 surmounted the rest is easy, and proficiency soon comes with 

 practice. Early attempts at casting from the reel should 

 certainly be made in a lonely place where men, trees, houses, 

 animals and beasts are not. Even a small dog standing twenty 

 yards behind the angler who is making his first cast in an 

 opposite direction would not be safe. Let the first day's 

 practice be on some desolate sandy shore at low tide. 



The rod should not be too stiff, for the spring of it will 

 help the cast. The rings should all be large ; the line of pure 

 silk lightly twisted and undressed, and the reel should be well 

 made. Cheap Nottingham reels are apt to revolve untruly, and 

 the unseasoned wood soon warps. The reel may be fitted with 

 an optional check, which when the cast is being made should be 

 thrown off. It is obvious that a large reel requires more force 

 to set it revolving than a smaller one made of the same material, 

 but having once started, it continues revolving for a longer time 

 than a reel of less circumference. Two things follow : In the 

 first place, the small reel is best suited for casting lightly leaded 

 tackle, while a large reel would require checking with the finger 

 towards the end of the cast sooner than a small one. As a rule, 

 one or two ounces of lead will be required on the trace used 

 for spinning ' from the shore. In deciding this point, the 

 additional weight of the bait, which if of metal may be half an 

 ounce or more, should be taken into consideration. It is a 

 great thing to know one's weapons. The expert caster becomes 

 as accustomed to using his own particular reel as a shooter 

 does his gun. In sea fishing so much line is usually required 

 that small reels are generally out of the question. For casting 



1 I use the word ' spinning ' as the term is a technical one understood of 

 anglers. As a matter of fact several of the natural baits cast from the shore 

 for bass and pollack do not and need not spin. 



C C 



