THE PIKE. AND PIKE FISHING 

 one top is shorter than the other, so the rod Is ten feet or twelve feet long, 

 according to the top you use, and it is all you want for any kind of pike 

 fishing, the short top being for live bait with float, and ledgering, and 

 the longer one for spinning and paternostering. 



THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE OF CASTING FROM THE REEL, AND 



ITS MODIFICATIONS 



It is an interesting question whether casting from the reel, that is, 

 making a cast and letting the bait pull the line off the reel as the latter 

 rapidly revolves, was used first by English or by American anglers. 

 Anyway, both English and American anglers cast from the reel some 

 sixty to seventy years ago, and seem to have evolved the method 

 independently, the Americans using a brass multiplier " Kentucky " 

 reel and Trent anglers the ordinary Nottingham wood reel. In the 

 last half century both reels have been constantly improved, and there 

 are many first-class casting reels on the market, both English and 

 American. About thirty years ago Mr David Slater made a reel which 

 I called "The Combination Nottingham and Ordinary Reel." It is a 

 beautifully made wood reel — ^walnut wood as a rule — ^running on a centre 

 pin, inside a frame with side bars, and fitted with optional check. One 

 can use it for any and all kinds of fishing — ^I have used one for sea fishing — 

 spinning for salmon, pike and trout, for all kinds of pike fishing and, in 

 fact, for all fish and all styles, and in fiy-fishing for trout at Blagdon, 

 where the first three trout I caught were all over six pounds. Good strong 

 reels of this kind are also made of vulcanite, one of the best being the 

 "Ariel," designed by Mr Coxon, the well-known Trent angler. You 

 must be an expert in casting and controlling it, or it will beat you. A 

 beautiful and favourite metal casting reel is Messrs Hardy's " Silex," 

 on which thousands of salmon have been killed, as well as heavy Indian 

 Mahseer. 



In casting with these and many other kinds of casting reels, including 

 the Dreadnought Company's "Meteor" reels, with which a two-and-a-half 

 ounce bait has been cast over one hundred yards, and the many excellent 

 American multipliers, the angler can adopt the old Nottingham side 

 swing; the double -hand, overhead cast, first described and advocated 

 by Mr John Holt Schooling in the " Fishing Gazette " at miy request; 

 or a not so generally known, but very useful cast, which I have called 



DD 201 



