42 PRACTICAL BAIT CASTING 



The modern, short casting rod originated some time 

 in the nineties in the vicinity of Chicago to meet fish- 

 ing conditions in the Middle West Wisconsin, Illin- 

 ois, Michigan, and Indiana particularly where there 

 are thousands of small, weedy lakes requiring accurate 

 casting and therefore the overhead cast, and its popu- 

 larity was assured when heavy artificial baits came into 

 general use, as the short rod is the only one that can 

 handle lures of this type. The first short rods ranged 

 from three and a half to six and a half feet in length, 

 but as the sport grew experience showed that rods 

 from four and a half to six and a quarter feet were the 

 most practical, five feet being the average. 



In casting rods, as in many other things, we bump 

 into the necessity of sacrificing one advantage to gain 

 another. The shorter rods are more efficient casting 

 tools; the longer ones more efficient fishing tools. It 

 is axiomatic that the longer the rod the more certain- 

 ty of hooking a rising fish, the more control you have 

 over him after he is hooked, and the more pleasure 

 you have in landing him. On the other hand, the 

 short rods are better for distance and accuracy it is 

 very hard work to cast overhead with rods over six 

 and a quarter feet long. 



Weight depends a great deal on material and con- 

 struction. As a general rule bamboo averages about 

 one ounce per foot in length; solid wood, fifteen to 

 twenty per cent heavier; steel thirty to fifty per cent, 

 although makers of steel rods are making them lighter 



