THE CASTING REEL 37 



it was intended, fly fishing. To-day the single action 

 reel has diminished in size and is made of many ma- 

 terials, but still it follows closely the pattern of the 

 first winch produced. From the very nature of the 

 case this is bound to be true. Little is required of 

 the fly fisherman's reel, ordinarily it is but a spool on 

 which the line is stored, so obviously no great de- 

 velopment may be expected, no radical changes 

 looked for. 



The invention of the multiplying reel, the casting 

 reel, per se, was coincident with the discovery of the 

 black-bass as a sporting asset. As the short rod was 

 born to meet new fishing conditions, so the multiply- 

 ing reel was produced to satisfy the demand for 

 something different to meet the wiles of a fish that 

 fought differently, cou,ld be taken with different 

 methods. 



The multiplying reel was born down in "the blue 

 grass country" in the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century. Probably Mr. George Snyder, of Paris, 

 Ky., produced the first double multiplying reel be- 

 tween the years 1810 and 1840, a crude creation 

 when compared to a modern Meek or Talbot, but 

 in mechanism of small pinion and larger cog-wheel, 

 essentially what the latest reel is. Mr. Snyder was 

 president of the Bourbon County Angling Club, and 

 when not attending to his duties of presiding officer 

 or engaged in his favorite occupation, angling, he 

 applied himself to his trade, that of silversmith and 



