172 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



first drop above the cinnamon is an ibis, and the first drop 

 above the ibis is a cinnamon, and the first drop above the 

 mallard wing is a cinnamon. The hand-flies are the blue dun 

 or the cow-dung. The blue professor is also an excellent fly 

 early in the season, as is also the gray ; the yellow is better 

 in May. 



My advice to the angler is to purchase his flies of the best 

 fly-tyers in New York and Boston, where competition has pro- 

 duced the necessity for employing first-rate materials in all 

 the departments of fishing-tackle, whether of gut, flies, hooks, 

 lines, reels, rods, and the coarser paraphernalia of the angler. 



TROUT REELS. The click reel is incomparably -the best, 

 though it is not so good to dry a line on as is the Billinghast 

 reel, which is formed of brass or German silver wire, and the 

 line open on all sides to the air. The click reel checks the 

 line to a certain weight of resistance, to which the angler 

 soon becomes accustomed, and in giving the fish the butt, he 

 does it with confidence, because he has ascertained from ex- 

 perience how great a check he puts upon the fish, and the pre- 

 cise strain caused to his casting-line, which he has regulated 

 accordingly. This is- not the case with a reel whose tension 

 of drag may be changed several times during one day's sport. 

 But the best reel for my use is a click reel, with a large per- 

 forated barrel or cylinder to reel the line on, and it should 

 also be perforated at the ends over the cylinder, for drying 

 the line. The advantage of a large cylinder to reel the line 

 on when the reel does not multiply is important, because it 

 shortens the time of reeling. Besides, with a large cylinder, 

 thirty yards is a sufficient length of line. I once killed a five- 

 and-a-half-pound trout in a very rapid stream with a nine- 

 ounce rod and only thirty yards of line. It took me two 

 hours and twelve minutes to kill the fish, timed by Dr. Be- 

 thune, of Boston. 



A click multiplier is better for angling with the worm or 

 minnow, but many bait anglers of the country prefer a small 

 multiplier without a click or drag. Bell-metal is supposed 



