50 SEA-FISH. 
Next in importance, if not indeed first, comes 
the reel, or winch. Some one writing of 
tarpon-fishing, Mr. Harmsworth, I believe, 
tells us that the reel costs four or five times as 
much as the rod; and, in a smaller ratio, the same 
holds good of sea-fishing. A sea-rod may be pur- 
chased for half-a-guinea; but an efficient reel, able 
not only to hold a hundred yards of strong line, 
but also to reel it up in the shortest time and with 
the least possible number of revolutions, as well as 
to resist the rotting effects of sea-water, is not to be 
had much under twice that sum. I have used a 
variety of sea-reels, in ebonite, wood, aluminium, 
gun-metal and the rest, and ranging from ten 
shillings to forty; and my favourite is the latest 
acquisition, a 54-inch combination of wood, bound 
with metal and aluminium, and furnished with the 
excellent “Bickerdyke” line guard. If I remember 
rightly, the price of this reel was eighteen shillings ; 
but it is easily recognised by the circular perforations 
in the barrel, which both lighten the whole and 
serve in a measure to dry the line by admitting 
the air. It is to all intents and purposes a star- 
backed “Nottingham” winch, free-running with 
optional check ; and the mechanism of the latter is 
simplicity itself, all the parts being of gun-metal. 
The barrel can be removed in a moment by a few 
turns of a screw, a preferable method to the spring 
catch by which this was accomplished in another 
reel of mine, a 43-inch vulcanite, furnished with a 
brake acted on by the forefinger, with which I did 
all my fishing for eight years, and with which, for 
the matter of that, I fish still whenever the other 
wants a rest. Yet another winch that I used with 
good results for a time was a composite metal 
Reel 
