458 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 16, 1911. 
Measuring Casts. 
Several weeks ago we commented on the surf¬ 
casting contest held by the Highbury Angling 
Society, at which time J. T. Emery exceeded the 
international record of 293 feet, held by Ed¬ 
ward B. Rice, of the Anglers’ Club of New 
York, with a cast of 295 feet 5 inches, and W. 
T. Attwood also exceeded this record with 294 
feet 4 inches. Mr. Emery made one cast of 
309V2 feet, which fell out of bounds and did not 
count, but the Fishing Gazette reporter evidently 
overlooked this important fact, for he called that 
cast “a world’s record.’’ 
In calling attention to this, we aiso referred 
to the methods of measuring casts for distance 
here and in England, and Editor Marston, of the 
Fishing Gazette, has replied to our query, as 
follows: 
‘'I quite agree with the editor of Forest and 
Stream that casts which do not count under the 
rules should not be classed as 'records.’ It has 
become not uncommon to record extra long casts 
made as exhibition casts or ‘out of court’ casts, 
and as long as it is clearly shown what they are 
no harm is done. I have often seen notes that 
‘in practice so-and-so did so many yards and 
feet.’ It is something to talk about, not to claim 
as a record. 
“As regards the method of measuring the casts 
at the Highbury tournament, in the distance only 
events the casts were measured from the cast¬ 
ing point to where the weight fell, no deduction 
of any kind being made. In the distance and 
accuracy events the length of cast was measured 
with the deduction of its deviation from the 
center line of court. Mr. Emery's casts of 295 
feet 5 inches and 294 feet 5 inches were the 
actual length of casts without deduction. 
“This question of measuring is one which 
might well be arranged on an international basis 
-—to get over differences in methods and to en¬ 
able records to be compared mo're readily. A 
simple illustration will make this point clear: A 
cast is made which measures 150 feet from the 
casting point to where the weight falls, this 
point being twenty feet away from the center 
line of court. By the American method the 
cast scores 148 feet. By the British method for 
distance only the cast scores 150 feet. By the 
British method for distance and accuracy the 
cast scores 130 feet; that is, 150 feet less 20 feet 
for deviation from center line.’’ 
The merits of the two systems of measuring 
we leave to club committees. Still, there is 
much to be said in favor of a right angle from 
the measuring line which marks the center of 
the court. The National Association adopted 
this method, basing its action on the tremendous 
weight of experience gained by clubs in the 
West that have made it their practice to cast 
bait events on lawns, where the most accurate 
measurements are possible, and are made. 
When a court is laid out, say for half-ounce 
bait-casting, two stakes are driven and a short 
line stretched between them, this constituting the 
casting point, over which no caster shall step 
in delivering his weight. Midway of this line 
a center stake is driven. A tape measure is at¬ 
tached to this stake and laid out exactly at right 
angles to the casting-point mark. 
The court is V-shaped, marked by lines drawn 
from the center stake, the lines to be 30 feet 
apart 100 feet from said stake. In practice it 
has been found that the most accurate measure¬ 
ment is obtained by employing a huge try square, 
which shows that a weight which lies on the 
grass is opposite a certain mark on the tape. 
Guess work is eliminated, and using the square 
is perhaps more rapid than lifting the tape line 
to stretch it over the weight. 
In casting on the water every effort is made 
to score casts at right angles to certain marks 
on the floating marking line, thus eliminating all 
possible errors in making allowances for the 
actual distance from casting-point to the fly. 
Although in distance casting no attention is de¬ 
voted to the distance the fly falls away from the 
measuring line, the caster himself endeavors to 
place the fly just as close to the line as possible 
and still avoid fouling the marking floats, for he 
knows that the closer his fly falls to the line, the 
more accurate will be the judges’ scoring. 
To pick up a bait or a fly and carry it to the 
center line for measurement of the cast would 
be folly, since the line is se’dom taut, but it is 
one of the traditions of the sport that such 
“scoring’’ has in times past been employed. 
A Bermuda Sea Angling Lake. 
Local and visiting anglers are promised a 
happy hunting, or rather fishing, ground at no 
distant date at Hamilton, Bermuda, an island in 
the North Atlantic, says the Anglers’ News. 
Here is to be found what is known as Hamilton 
Sound, and work is already in hand whereby 
it promises to become the largest salt water pre¬ 
serve in the world. The Sound covers about 
five square miles, and it communicates with the 
ocean by a single narrow opening, through which 
the tide ebbs and flows. It is proposed to con¬ 
struct a sill of concrete across this, and fix a 
screen to prevent the exit of fish. The preserve 
will be stocked with yearlings, reared at the 
hatchery, at the Marine Biological Station, 
Agars Island, and with fish taken in the open. 
The actual construction will be under the super¬ 
vision of the board of works, and the general 
oversight of the preserve will be in the hands 
of a special fisheries board. 
Only game sea fish will be used for stock¬ 
ing, and it looks very much as though in the 
future Santa Catalina, Tampico, Ballycotton and 
Valencia Island will have to look to their 
laurels. Hamilton Sound soon promises to be 
the “swim” for specimens. 
Kansas City Bait- and Fly-Casting Club. 
Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 4. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: These scores were made by our 
club at the regular contest held on Sept. 3 at 
Spring Valley Lake: 
(Juarter-ounce accuracy: 
W. L. Rock. 
J. W. Bramhall. 
G. L. Robirds. 
C. H. Cheney. 
T. C. Kerner. 
E. M. Meier. 
G. W. Woolworth. 
J. G. Hollingsworth. 
Half-ounce accuracy: 
E. M. Meier. 98.7 
W. E. Rock. 98.6 
C. E. Heite. 98.5 
j. C. Kerner. 98.2 
G. K. Robirds. 9S.0 
Accuracy fly: 
T. W. Bramhall... 99 8-15 
*T. W. Bramhall.. 99 1-15 
G. E. Robirds. 9S 12-15 
C. IT. Cheney.... 98 12-15 
W. E. Rock..'. 98 10-15 
♦Re-entries. 
Regular. Re-entry. 
. 98.7 98.3 
. 98.7 98.4 
. 98.6 
. 98.3 97.0 
. 97.8 98.6 
. 97.2 96.1 
. 95.0 
. 97.4 
G. W. Woolworth... 97.6 
C. H. Cheney. 97.5 
J. G. Hollingsworth. 97.5 
j. W. Sherlock. 97.3 
E, M. Meier.98 10-15 
*W. E. Rock. 99 
E. G. McLean.... 98 10-15 
T. C. Kerner. 98 9-15 
Conditions were anything but favorable for good 
casting, there being a very heavy wind, which in¬ 
terfered with the casting to quite an extent. 
On Sept. 24 this club wili hold its sixth annual 
casting tournament at Spring Valley Lake. There 
will be three regular events, consisting of quar¬ 
ter-ounce accuracy, half-ounce accuracy and ac¬ 
curacy fly, these three events to be open to any 
members of the N. A. S. A. C. 
There wiil also be two special events which 
will be open to any one. If any out-of-town 
members of the N. A. S. A. C. happen to be in 
Kansas City on the above date, they are cor¬ 
dially invited to attend this tournament. 
Suitable trophies will be awarded in all the 
events, and aside from these prizes there will 
be a challenge cup awarded to the contestant (as 
first holder) making the highest combined aver¬ 
age in the three regular events, this cup to be 
defended under conditions to be announced later 
and will be open to any N. A. S. A. C. members. 
E. G. McLean, Sec’y. 
Fishing News. 
Among the numerous catches in the famous 
fishing grounds of Northern Wisconsin and 
Michigan were the following: 
At State Line, Mich., Aug. 29—Pike, bass and 
pickerel fishing good. Weather and water con¬ 
ditions good. Aug. 22, W. H. Heine, of Chicago, 
caught two pickerel, weight eight pounds; Wm. 
Cannon, of Chicago, eight pike, weight twenty 
pounds, and Wm. Healy, of Elgin, one four- 
pound black bass. Aug. 24, Fred Huntley caught 
six pike, total weight twelve pounds. Aug. 28, 
J. Heliman, of Chicago, caught three pickerel, 
weight eleven pounds. 
At Woodruff, Wis.—Mascalonge fishing in Big 
St. Germain Lake is reported as excellent. Chas. 
Welte, of Peoria, landed a twenty-two-pounder, 
and H. M. Pindell, also of Peoria, had the satis¬ 
faction of hauling in a muskey that tipped the 
scales at forty-one pounds. 
At Rhinelander, Wis.—-J. Johnson landed a 
muskey that weighed twenty-seven pounds. 
At Cable, Wis.—Wm. Hill, of Ashland, Wis., 
on Aug. 27, landed one Northern pike, weight 
nineteen pounds. 
At Hayward, Wis., Aug. 26—W. H. Beebe, of 
Chicago, one thirty-three-pound muskey and Dr. 
H. J. Richards, of St. Joseph, Mo., six bass, 
weight eleven pounds. F. Deman, of Frankfort, 
Ky., caught eight bass weighing twenty pounds. 
Conditions Improving. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Sept. 3. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: In my last letter to you I men¬ 
tioned the fact that a number of men (seven, I 
believe) were to be tried for dynamiting Green 
River for rainbow trout. They have all been 
bound over to court, and Judge Ewart, of this 
town, tells me there is no doubt about convict¬ 
ing them. We shall see. 
We have had copious rains since my last 
writing and the streams seem to be about nor¬ 
mal now, so that when I can get a day off from 
business I expect to have one more day on 
Green River with the rainbow trout. 
Ernest L. Ewbank. 
All the fish laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nozv in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
