206 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. i7, 1912 
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Wind Interference in Surf-Casting. 
BY SWITCH REEL. 
The writer recently had the privilege of 
watching half a hundred surf-casters battling all 
day with a stiff 9 o’clock wind in an effort to 
cast a four-ounce lead beyond the 300-foot mark. 
At least six of them should have done so had 
not the wind conditions been adverse. The best 
cast made, however, was seven feet four inches 
short of the hundred yard mark, and great dis¬ 
appointment prevailed. A study of the failure 
in the light of experience discloses some interest¬ 
ing points as to the effect of a cross wind upon 
bait-casting work. 
Figure 1 illustrates roughly the belly in the 
him at the instant the lead strikes. Figure 2 
B 
gives an idea of the trajectory of the lead, the 
dotted line representing the course traveled by 
the lead and the solid line representing the line, 
the caster standing at the point A. Distances as 
follows: A-C-B, 275 feet; A-D-B, 300 feet; 
C-D, 75 feet; estimated average velocity of lead, 
fifty-five feet per second; wind velocity, twenty- 
two feet per second; time consumed in flight of 
lead, five seconds, belly in line, seventy-five feet. 
It is probable that as the lead advances, the 
lengthening line sweeps through a course whose 
limits are between the dotted and solid lines in 
the two figures and which is a product of the 
two areas. The line makes part of a revolution 
about the line along which the lead travels; prob¬ 
ably less than a quarter revolution. Given that 
the line attains an extreme divergence of 
seventy-five feet from the course followed by 
the lead, the mean divergence would be half that 
distance. But as the drag of the advancing 
belly in the line exists both between A and D 
and between D and B, the sum of two means, 
or seventy-five feet, must be taken as the total 
line surface offering resistance to the air. The 
area of one side of seventy-five feet of nine- 
thread line at thirty-six turns to the inch is 
twenty-five square inches, which is the total sur¬ 
face exposed to the air at the end of the cast. 
But as this surface grows from zero, it would 
seem proper to regard the mean of twenty-five 
square inches as about the equal of the exposed 
line surface offered as a drag on the lead 
throughout its flight. If this reasoning be cor¬ 
rect, it may be said that the lead in a'275-foot 
cast under the wind conditions above described 
has, in effect, been towing a plane surface a little 
larger than half a postal card, broadside on, 
through its entire journey. 
It is remarkable that a 292-foot 8-inch cast 
should have been made under such a handicap, 
but such was the achievement of Mr. Frank P. 
Johnson at Asbury Park on Aug. 3. 
I am not in the class with your correspond¬ 
ent "Olive Dun,” who possesses two cords of 
fly-rods. My stock is down to about half a cord 
through having supplied a few boy friends of 
the right sort with proper tools. But while 1 
look back tenderly to the fly-rod days, they 
brought no wild joy like that which goes with 
a 300-foot surf cast running smoothly to the end. 
A good two-fisted rod with plenty of butt 
and with ginger in the spring of it, a free spool, 
silent running reel, a slender nine-thread line 
that breaks at eighteen pounds strain, a four- 
ounce lead, a long backward reach, a move like 
unto Chief Meyers’ whipping the ball down to 
second base which the left hand at the end of 
the butt follows through and accelerates with a 
bit of a pull, and — away goes the lead tearing- 
yard after yard of line from the reel. The fly 
is retrieved and cast in two or three seconds. 
A deer is seen and shot in less. But it is one, 
two, three, four, five seconds of anxiety and 
doubt lest a back-lash part the line ere the lead 
finally strikes a hundred yards away. Wah! A 
bull moose ! It would make T. R. himself feel 
like six bull moose rolled into one. 
1 know, for I’ve done it—probably when no 
fellow saw it. 
Mascalonge in the Niagara River. 
Buffalo, N. Y„ July 31 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Mascalonge are plentiful on Upper 
Niagara River this season. Fifteen a day are 
being caught on an average. Many of our club 
members are among the successful. The record 
for size to date is held by ex-Game Protector 
Thomas Carter, his prize weighing forty pounds. 
FI. C. Utz, Sec’y Frontier Rod and Gun Club. 
Dry-Fly in Northern Waters. 
South Milford, N. S., July 24. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: Disappointed that any re¬ 
marks of mine previously made have led to the 
impression (as I read out of Mr. Bisbee’s genial 
letter) that I have been so daring as to deny 
the efficacy of the dry-fly on the Rondout or any 
other -water in the neighborhood of New York, 
or for the matter of that anywhere else that I 
do not personally know. The older a sportsman 
grows, the less given he usually is to generalizing 
about country that he is not well acquainted 
with. Except my experience in English waters 
I have never used the dry-fly save in Canadian 
and Maine -waters, and I have confined my re¬ 
marks about its comparative inefficiency to Nova 
Scotia waters. And, furthermore, I do not say 
that even in some other part of the North Woods 
it might not prove a success, though I rather 
doubt it, except on certain occasions, as I be¬ 
lieve the wild trout of our waters do not like 
dead or immovable bait. 
I do not relish the idea that I pretend to 
any exclusive knowledge on any woodland 
subject, for the older a man gets, the more 
humble he grows. I merely register my experi¬ 
ences, and draw certain, not very far-reaching, 
conclusions from them. Having tried the dry- 
fly here ever since 1900 (see “Tent Dwellers” for 
use in 1902), I cannot fail to have observed cer¬ 
tain things about the dry-fly and our trout here, 
Z'cild taut. Though the use of the dry-fly is 
fifteen years old and more, with some of us on 
this side of the big pond, and though Mr. Gill 
and Mr. LaBranche are doing a lot to make the 
art of it popular, yet I am also of the opinion 
that some maker must first come who has the 
enterprise to tie flies after our own insects be¬ 
fore we can pretend to 4 an American dry-fly 
science. Edward Breck. 
Santa Cruz Tournament. 
A FLY-CASTING contest was held at the Santa 
Cruz water pageant, July 27, 1912. Eight beau¬ 
tiful trophies were awarded to the successful 
casters. Among the contestants were the ex¬ 
perts of the San Francisco Fly-Casting Club of 
San Francisco and the California Anglers’ Asso¬ 
ciation of San Francisco. 
The contest was held on a beautiful lake and 
the conditions of the weather were ideal. Santa 
Cruz at this time of the season is one mass of 
solid summer visitors, with the result that a large 
gathering was present to witness the fly-casting 
contests. The following proved to be the most 
expert in the different events: Accuracy fly, first 
prize, F. J. Cooper; second prize, T. C. Kierulff. 
Delicacy fly, first prize, T. C. Kierulff; second 
prize, E. A. Mocker. Accuracy lure, first prize, 
F. A. Webster; second prize, C. IF. Kewell. 
Long distance line, first prize, C. H. Kewell; sec¬ 
ond prize, F. A. Webster. 
E. A. Mocker. 
David Hill, of Ottawa, Ill., while fishing 
recently at the junction of the Fox and Illinois 
rivers, landed a ten-pound red-mouth buffalo 
fish, the largest of this species caught with a 
hook and line in many years. It required the 
combined strength of Hill and a companion to 
haul the big fellow to shore. 
