360 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



3. Its third duty is allowing so gentle a braking action 

 to be applied to the drum that while it does not 

 impede the unwinding of the line, and the progress 

 of the lure, yet it prevents the drum from over- 

 running the line. 



In the most perfect form of a spinning reel* the first duty 

 is being performed when the reel is in its normal condition. 

 The second duty is brought into being by a slight and 

 continued pressure of a finger of either hand. 



The third duty is brought into being by an increase in this 

 pressure, and the normal duty again arrived at by releasing 

 this pressure altogether. 



It will be recognized that these three duties of the reel 

 should be determined by the most simple and easily 

 acquired action possible. 



THE DRUM, ITS INERTIA, AND ITS ROTATION 



The various influences which affect a spinning lure during 

 its flight through the air, even if ascertainable, could only 

 be considered as affecting the lure at the particular moment 

 at which these forces were definitely known. 



It is certain that one cannot solve a problem when the 

 different factors connected with that proposition are of an 

 unknown and ever varying character, and therefore a 

 general formula to determine the exact speed, curvature, 

 and position of the lure at each moment of its passage from 

 its place of inertia to that of its destination during the act 

 of spinning cannot be stated. 



If the lure at a certain moment of its radial passage were 

 permitted entire freedom, centrifugal force would exactly 

 determine its pathway, but the lure is attached by a line 

 to the drum of the reel, and therefore it is only partially 

 released. Hence a series of different factors come into 



* See the description of Spinning Reels in the final chapter. 



