HOUSING THE TACKLE 121 



that the only indictment I brought against the long 

 rod was the inconvenience of transportation, which 

 would be largely obviated if checked as baggage. 

 Rod-trunks are well made, and range in price from 

 $10.00 for the cheaper, to $25.00 or so for the bet- 

 ter grades. It might require some courage to un- 

 strap a rod-trunk at a bass-inn, but even so the lover 

 of a one-piece rod could endure the jokes with equa- 

 nimity if he took into consideration convenience in 

 traveling as well as the condition of his casters. 

 Rod-trunks are going to be more common. 



All that has been said of rods applies with equal 

 force to reels. There is one best receptacle for the 

 winch, viz., a hard sole leather case large enough to 

 contain a reel when enclosed in its shammy sack. 

 Even if the reel is to be carried in a tackle-box, as 

 will hereinafter appear, it is unwise to neglect the 

 leather covering, never under any circumstances, the 

 shammy bag. I have had a reel-handle badly bent 

 even in a leather case when carried in a suit-case. 

 Naturally, when tramping to a stream, the angler 

 will not carry the sole-leather case, but neither will 

 he place the reel in his pocket without the protec- 

 tion of the reel-bag. When we were children we 

 were taught that the "pleasant land" was made of 

 "grains of sand," and a single grain is enough to 

 wreck the finest reel ever made if it find lodgment 

 in the bearings. This reel-bag the caster can make 

 from any pliable bit of leather, closely woven cloth 



