FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



about salmon-fishing, he never hooked a salmon; but he had heard 

 of persons who "use a wheel about the middle of their rod or near their 

 hand, which is to be observed better by seeing one of them than by a 

 large demonstration of words."* 



The evolution of the salmon -reel was a slow process. A century and 

 a half after Izaak Walton had made his last cast — ^to wit, at the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century — it had assumed a character, on the Tweed at 

 least, which it would puzzle a modern practitioner to manipulate. The 

 reel was attached to a broad leathern belt round the angler's waist, whence 

 it was termed, Scottice, a "belly pirn." It was not long before some in- 

 genious mortal hit upon the notion of attaching the reel to the rod instead 

 of to his person. The pattern in vogue continued to be a long -barrelled, 

 shallow affair with which it perplexes one to understand how our forbears 

 were content to set to work, and how it should have taken them so long to 

 perceive that winding power might be increased by enlarging the diameter 

 of the drum. They tried ** multipliers " first, which quickened the revo- 

 lution by a small ratchet wheel working upon a greater one; but they 

 soon found out that what was gained in speed (when all worked smoothly) 

 was lost in power, and that the strain of a heavy fish was exceedingly 

 apt to cause a jam at the very moment when only free play could avert 

 disaster. •* Whatever you do," wrote Scrope (whose name, dear reader, 

 deserves reverence from all good anglers and must be pronounced as 

 if written Scroop), "whatever you do have nothing to say to multiplying 

 reels." Doubtless he had used some strong language about them, for he goes 

 on to describe how he hooked a salmon in the Boldside water on Tweed 

 which " executed some very heavy runs, and so disconcerted the ma- 

 chinery of my multiplier as almost to dislocate the wheels. The line gave 

 out with starts and hitches, so that I was obliged to assist it with my 

 hands. To wind up it resolutely refused, so that I was compelled to gather 

 in the line in large festoons when it was necessary to shorten it, and again 

 to give these out when the fish made a run." Scrope got his fish in the 

 end, but not until three hours of a good fishing day had been consumed 

 in the process, which, with more efficient gear, might have been accom- 

 plished in ten minutes. The adventure bore good fruit, for Scrope tells 

 us how thereafter he caused a reel to be made on a better design with a 

 large cylinder to increase the winding power. Thus the first approach was 

 made to the modern salmon-reel, which has since been perfected by 



"Th* CtmpUat Angler, chap. vii. 



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