THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 

 flies away in an almost perfectly straight line. In practising at a fifty yard 

 marlc (an old oval tea tray with a bull's eye painted on it stuck up on the 

 lawn) with this overhead cast and this automatic ** F.G. Release," I have 

 often made fifty casts all within three yards of the target, and at least 

 one or two hitting it with a resounding '* plump." My four sons are all 

 better than I am at this overhead Schooling cast, and all use the thumb 

 release, and so does my wife, who always uses it in actual sea fishing, 

 casting from piers, etc., and in spinning for pike. By the way, there was 

 an article in " The Times " on sport recently* in which the writer tried 

 to make out that angling is not a sport for women. All I can say is that 

 if the writer is an angler, I could wish him no better fortune than to have 

 a wife who can cast a fiy well, or a sea or pike bait from thirty to fifty 

 yards from the reel, and who at the same time is really keen. I have known 

 and fished with a great many anglers every year for fifty years, and I can 

 honestly say that for keen enjoyment of the sport, and for sticking to it 

 in any weather, very few would beat Mrs M. and some other ladies I have 

 met. 



As, of course, no one but an angler is likely to read these lines, or one 

 who feels a desire to become an angler, I need hardly say what a blessing 

 it is to have a wife who is always ready to go fishing, and always the last 

 to have a final cast at the end of the day. And this reminds me that I forgot 

 to mention a reel for bait casting called the " Facile," made by Mr Wash- 

 bourne, of Reading. Mrs M. has used it for some years, and prefers it to 

 any other. It is inexpensive, strong, and very light, especially in the 

 barrel; I know no other reel quite so free from the bothering "overrun" 

 as the " Facile "; the reason is that there is next to no weight in the barrel 

 at its outer edge, and so a very slight silent check, which you apply with 

 a screw, causes the reel to stop running almost automatically at the end 

 of the cast, and you do not have to control it at all with the fingers during 

 the cast. Mrs M. uses the overhead Schooling cast with a short light rod, 

 uses the thumb release, which I described, and simply lets the reel run 

 until the two- to four-ounce sea weight and tackle is dropping into the 

 sea, and then just touches the reel to stop it. I mention this particularly 

 because I have known so many anglers give up trying to cast from the reel 

 because of overruns, and I am quite certain the "Facile " and the thumb 

 release would have enabled them to master it, both for sea fishing and 

 spinning for pike, etc. 



•June, 1912, 



205 



