58 FISHING KITS AND EQUIPMENT 



innumerable natural difficulties of the river thick 

 brush, slippery rocks, overhanging trees that lie in 

 wait for careless back casts, and numerous other natural 

 impediments can ill afford to utilize a tool which 

 by its very nature is calculated to increase his troubles; 

 and every form of multiplying reel, since the gearing 

 necessitates an outstanding balance handle, is a first- 

 class trouble-maker for the fly-caster. The very gen- 

 eral custom among expert anglers, when fly-fishing, of 

 manipulating the line with the hand not occupied with 

 the rod, grasping the line between the reel and the 

 hand-guide, and thus paying-out and retrieving the line 

 both in casting and playing a trout quite independently 

 of the reel, using the reel only when there is too much 

 slack, renders the reel but little more than a mere line- 

 holder. And even when the reel is used when landing 

 a fish the multiplying machinery is not necessary, 

 indeed, is dangerous, since the tendency is toward 

 handling the trout altogether too strenuously. The 

 single-action reel is fully equal to every trout-fishing 

 emergency. 



In addition to its freedom from line-fouling the 

 single-action has also the advantage in weight over the 

 multipliers, as a result of which the light fly-rod 

 balances better. Another argument for the single-ac- 

 tion is its simplicity and consequently its lesser tendency 

 to get out of order and greater ability to withstand the 

 sometimes unavoidable hard knocks and abuse which 

 a reel receives in stream fishing. And still another 



