REELS. 69 
the boat has been drifting before a wind, and the hooked fish, 
as before pointed out, ‘runs in.’ 
The new handle has been fitted for me by Messrs. Farlow, 
from whom similar reels could be ordered. The diameter of my 
reel is 2$ of an inch, and the width between the plates y% of 
aninch. It weighs only about 44 oz. 
The reels described in the foregoing pages represent the 
latest advances that have been made, and amongst them 
neither the salmon nor trout fisher need, I think, find any 
difficulty in selecting a reel suited to his taste,—observing again 
that the question of weight is one demanding most serious 
consideration, especially on the part of fly-fishers who are not 
burdened with superfluous muscular development. If the 
lower (untapered) portion of the reel-line—otherwise the ‘ back 
line’—which is not used in casting, and which undergoes 
comparatively little wear and tear, is made to consist of either 
fine undressed silk or (better) hemp, the total weight may 
be sensibly reduced without loss either of efficiency or 
* compass.’ 
Allowing, say, forty yards—either of the ordinary taper, or 
of the swelled taper, as already described, for casting purposes, 
sixty or seventy yards of hemp line strong enough to hold any- 
thing that swims can be got comfortably upon a three and 
three-quarter or four-inch reel (according to the width of the 
barrel), and this length will usually be found sufficient for all 
ordinary purposes.! In ‘big rivers,’ however, as the editor 
truly observes in the foot-note, this length may be advan- 
tageously increased to 120 or even 150 yards, in which case 
the size of the reel will, of course, have to be increased also. 
‘On to a four-inch reel of my pattern I can get 100 yards of 
back line, consisting of very fine, solid plaited, superficially 
1 [like 130 to 150 yards on the reel for salmon fishing—75 yards of each sort 
-of line. In big rivers I have had a good deal of the second half run out by a 
heavy fish. The having two kinds of line indicates, when the second begins 
running, at what distance the fish is from you, which in very broken water is 
sometimes difficult to ascertain. —Ep. 
