FOREST AND STREAM 
June 7, 1913 
71 f) 
former gives greater strain at the breech and 
more recoil than the latter. 
Many splendid casters, however, are unable 
to get results with the long lead, having ac¬ 
quired a style based on the short lead. In 
casting a dry line on the surf they sometimes 
break down. It may be that the tendency of 
the line to part under these circumstances would 
be lessened by thoroughly wetting three or four 
feet of it next to the sinker but not enough 
of it 10 reach to the reel and cause sogginess 
or stickiness, the idea being that the shrinking 
caused by the moisture will impart additional 
elasticity to the short lead. 
Various styles of swinging are seen, the 
most common being a combination of the side 
swing and the overhead. This seenu to be the 
form into which the majority of casters uncon¬ 
sciously fall and much is to be said in its favor. 
The least effective cast is the underhand. Un¬ 
usually fine work has been done in the style ad¬ 
vocated by Mr. Rice and Dr. Held, in which an 
absolutely perpendicular swing is sought, but 
the rods best adapted to this particular style 
do not find favor with the rules committees 
along our coast. Consequently this style has 
not received the trial which its able exponents 
must feel that it deserves. 
Mr. La Branche once asked in the writer's 
presence the question: “What are we all striv¬ 
ing for?” And immediately answered it by 
saying: “To make the longest cast in the 
world.” It would seem that this puts the mat¬ 
ter in a nutshell. We must not feel that tackle 
has reached its ultimate stage of development, 
nor should we by rules and restrictions wholly 
prevent change. Therefore, there is ground for 
at least a little regret that there is not one 
surf event in one casting tournament somewhere 
in this vast country of ours with the lid com¬ 
pletely off and no restriction applied to either 
rod, reel or line. Such an event would afford 
a battle ground upon which the old and the 
new could fight to a finish. The results would 
depend not upon words, but upon deeds. 
The writer witnessed Mr. Rice’s 305-foot 
cast at Asbnry Park a few years ago. The next 
year, Mr. Moran, using less of a perpendicular 
swing, accomplished 314 feet 10 inches. Both 
used a 3-ounce lead. Mr. Rice used a silk line 
reinforced with a heavier linen- line to take 
the strain at starting. 'I'here is, I believe, an 
English record of 320 feet and an Australian 
record of 336 feet, both with a 4-ounce lead, 
and probably rods of about fourteen feet in 
length. Last year’s rules in three Atlantic 
Coast clubs, respectively, permitted rods up to 
8U. 9 and 10 feet in length. Such rods would 
seem to be heavily handicapped in going after 
the 3.36-foot record of a 14-foot rod. But it is 
by no means a hopeless matter. The writer’s 
experience in practice casting with the rod 
described in the early part of this article firmly 
convinces him that under favorable conditions, 
and in the hands of the right man, it will lay 
out 350 feet of 9-thread line. We have several 
giants of surf casting in this country. What, 
then, would one of them do with a happily pro¬ 
portioned rod of ten feet in length? 
While the long, lithe rod of our British 
cousins gives them much advantage over us, 
yet our reels go far toward evening matters 
up, and it is only the somewhat unfortunate 
official selection of 2^4 ounces as the standard 
weight in this country that has held us back 
in that supreme event—“the longest cast in the 
world.” But with 3-ounce leads and lo-foot 
rods permitted in the tournament of the 
Anglers’ Club of New York, and with 4-ounce 
leads permitted at Belmar and Asbnry Park, 
although rods are there restricted to 8l4 and 
9-foot lengths-, respectively, the goal is almost 
within reach. 
These points are respectively submitted to 
the consideration of tournament committees: 
A lo-foot rod and a 4-ounce lead are strictly 
fishing tools. Why not include both in tourna¬ 
ment rules and go after the world’s record? 
North Carolina Notes. 
Hendersonville, N. C., May 27.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: It is said that “variety is 
the spice of life,” and if this is applicable to 
the weather, then we have had it here the past 
twelve months. 
Really the months appear to have got 
mixed in the shuffle. April was largely February 
weather and a part of April came in January. 
Even this month has shown frost. But at last 
spring is with us in full force in spite of the 
occasional lapses to colder weather. 
The birds came also on time regardless of 
late spring, and I have seen young robins large 
enough to fly. Everything is green that grows 
leaves, and the early rhododendrons were in 
bloom when I was fishing Green River over two 
weeks, yes three weeks ago. And thanks to a 
growing sentiment in favor of the birds, the 
songsters have enlivened the woods with their 
songs. 
I have not had a really good day’s fishing, 
yet I have each time that I have been fishing 
killed more than the home folks would eat, so 
they were passed on to a neighbor. I think I 
have creeled so far the largest of the season— 
a rainbow trout I7j4 inches in length. 
We have made our usual planting of trout 
this spring in Green River and its tributaries, 
and the interest seems to be from among the 
people who live all along the stream. They 
never fail to meet the train that brings the 
fish regardless of weather conditions. I have 
not as yet been to a brook trout stream, though 
the upper stretches of Green River are stocked 
with brook trout. Last time I was on the river 
I caught a brook trout when I had no idea of 
doing so on that stretch of water, and as I 
brought it to net, I saw a large rainbow appar¬ 
ently after it. This brook trout was something 
like eight inches in length. A little later I hope 
to have some sport with the brook trout on the 
Chatooga River in Jackson county, and shall 
then report results. 
I am glad to note that you do not approve 
of taxing cartridges. It would hardly be right 
to make true sportsmen pay a tax because of 
game hogs and small boys shooting birds in and 
out of season. Surely, we should not wish to 
make everyone who shoots suffer because some 
men do wrong. It is the duty of game wardens 
to protect the birds, and it is the duty we all 
owe to use our utmost efforts to have good laws 
enforced, and to this end have game wardens. 
Taxing cartridges would not stop the killing of 
birds. 
I am sorry to say in this State we have no 
warden system and still cling to the old and 
foolish county game law plan. 
Ernest L. Ewb.-^nk. 
What Becomes of the Covey? 
S. 4 LTVILLE, Va., j\Iay 30.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In a great many cases a covey of 
quail passes through the hunting season and 
winter safely and arrives at the breeding season 
without much loss in numbers, but the following 
fall but one covey is found, made up of the 
two old birds, left from the old covey and their 
young. What becomes of the remainder of the 
original covey ? 
Is there not a large amount of inbreeding 
among quail? If so, why is it that they don’t 
"run out”? 
I have never read nor heard any satisfactory 
answers to these questions, and I would appre¬ 
ciate it very much if you would answer them 
through the columns of Forest and Stream. 
M. Blake Mount. 
The Hair Rope Myth. 
Baltimore, IMd., May 21.— Editor Forest and- 
Stream: I read with interest the article by 
Chas. Stuart Moody on “The Hair Rope Myth” 
and to-day came across the inclosed in the 
American Field: 
“Tarantulas .and snakes crawl about the 
ground, but for these the old miners have less 
fear, when sleeping on the ground at night, than 
the average layman has when at home on his 
Ostermoor. These men of the hills carry a hair 
rope, and after spreading out their blankets at 
night, coil this about the bed as a protection 
against all crawling insects, for none will cross, 
the dividing line.” 
I have never seen the experiment tried, as 
Mr. Moody writes he tried it, but while a “cow¬ 
boy” in Colorado and afterward a “wool grower” 
in Texas, I heard the assertion frequently made 
and never questioned. It would be interesting 
to hear from some of the people wdio do believe 
it and the reason they have for believing. 
M. K. T. 
The Rising Generation. 
Jersey City, N. J., May 14.— Editor Forest 
aand Stream: Count me in favor of the sug¬ 
gestion of your correspondent, John Preston 
True, in May 10 issue. Then we shall see 
wdiether the good old stories seem as fine in 
flavor at fifty or fifty-five as they did at twenty 
or twenty-five years. But don’t worry when we 
speak with tears in our voice about Nessmuk, 
Kingfisher, Sam Lovel, et al. It’s only our 
way of having fun with you youngsters. We 
are growing old as gracefully as possible, but 
sometimes without even a grudging acknowledg¬ 
ment of that fact we recall the swelling joys we 
drew of yore from your columns. 
Then we were looking at the future; to-day 
we are—I will not say it. 
To-day, too. youth looks at the future, and 
when to-day’s youth reach our age, they will 
write your successors about the days of Robert 
Page Lincoln and Ernest L. Ewbank and Emlyn 
M. Gill, and a whole lot of other good folks 
who just can’t make their pens keep still. 
Switch Reel. 
