SELF-THUMBERS VS. BACKLASHES 



There has been quite a bit of hectic comedy pulled 

 off regarding the self-thumbing, or more commonly 

 called antibacklash reels, some of the writers of fish- 

 ing dope going right up into the clouds at the mere 

 mention of a self-thumber, all for the simple reason 

 that they think it is unsportsmanlike to take ad- 

 vantage of the little fishes by using a mechanical 

 device which makes casting easier. A big part of 

 this highbrow stuff is bunk. We admit that there is 

 a lot of pleasure to be derived from artistically 

 thumbing the line, and for the fellow who has the 

 time to devote to learning thumbing (and it cannot 

 be picked up in a day) we say go to it, Old Man, 

 and you'll enjoy it. But to the great big army of 

 every-once-in-a-while fishermen, who plug away on 

 the real job most of the time to keep the wolf from 

 getting too well acquainted, there is nothing bet- 

 ter than the self-thumber. You can learn to cast 

 with a half hour's practice. Of course you won't 

 be an expert at placing your bait, but you have the 

 great advantage of the thumbing attended to, and 

 that's nine-tenths of the operation of making the 

 cast. 



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