REELS. 



47 



by making it too easy. It would do so for them, but not for 

 the man who can only devote a day now and then to fishing 

 they add to his pleasure. 



The expert fishermen are quite often opposed to the 

 automatic reel for the same reason; it does not give the fish 

 a chance and makes fishing easy. But properly used the 

 automatic reel is one of the finest things ever designed for 

 the fly fisherman ; it is no good for bait-casting, but may be 

 used for still-fishing. To my mind it is as sportsmanlike as 



An Automatic Reel the T. & E. 



the hammerless or repeating gun and I can see no reason 

 why anybody should draw the line at improvements in fish- 

 ing reels. In fly fishing the angler need not use the reel to 

 play the fish if he does not care to do so, but handle the line 

 by hand and pick up the slack with the reel. A pressure of 

 the little finger on the lever causes the reel to rapidly wind 

 in line. It is really intended to co-operate with the spring of 

 the rod to automatically and instantly take up all slack of 

 the line and keep a constant strain on the fish. It is not in- 



