810 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 2, 1911. 
Surf Casting Methods. 
Jersey City, N. J., Nov. 22. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Your suggestion in the issue of Oct. 
14 that the V-shaped court supplant the thirty- 
foot lane in the surf-casting tournaments of the 
Asbury Park Fishing Club provided the other 
clubs recognize the three or four-ounce weights 
in their tournaments, has caused much merited 
discussion. As I have favored the suggestion, 
my views need not be advanced here. Suffice 
it to say that the V-shaped court is not without 
strong advocates along the coast and it is stated 
upon good authority that a neighbor of the At¬ 
lantic Park Fishing Club, also a surf angling 
association, is strongly inclined to adopt it. 
But the thirty-foot lane has good points. A 
study of it to scale brings out some lively feat¬ 
ures which at first blush would escape the in¬ 
quirer. It can be claimed for the straight lane 
that it is an automatic handicapper always exact 
and indisputable. 
Imagine a parallelogram thirty feet wide and 
300 feet long and the caster standing at one end 
fifteen feet from either side. Is it not at once 
apparent that any cast must fall within a tri¬ 
angle thirty feet wide at whatever distance it 
may be delivered? Suppose, for example that 
every entrant in a tournament can reach the 150- 
foot mark or better. Then 150 feet becomes the 
basis for the automatic computation of the han¬ 
dicap. 
Smith, the 150-foot man, steps to the mark. 
In effect the parallel lines of the lane drop out 
of his calculations and unconsciously he figures 
on a V-shaped court of unknown length, but 
thirty feet wide at the extreme end. If his cast 
is not within the angles of such a court he must 
pull it back or lose it. Jones, a 300-foot man, 
comes next. While his court is thirty feet wide 
at 300 feet, it is but fifteen feet wide at Smith’s 
distance, 150 feet. Smith has dropped a cast on 
the 150-foot mark which is fourteen feet eleven 
inches from the center line and it scores. Robin¬ 
son sends his cast down at the same angle, but 
it travels 155 feet. Lo, it drops two inches out¬ 
side and is lost. 
Taking 150 feet as a starting point and 300 feet 
as the limit for every foot beyond the first mark, 
the caster must win six-tenths of an inch closer 
to the center line of the lane or lose his cast. 
There is some wonderful mathematical curve 
which ever lurks at the caster’s elbow to stamp 
his effort for naught unless it conforms to the 
ever narrowing triangle as the cast lengthens. 
Neither past performances nor the varying ef¬ 
fects of cross winds, nor any other local condi¬ 
tion need be considered. It puts every cast and 
every caster on its and his own merits and yet 
supplies a common denominator for all. I can 
sense its presence, but leave it for the geometri¬ 
cian to fathom. 
The tournament committee has almost noth¬ 
ing to do but select a date—the lane does the 
rest. There is no tedious search through past 
records, no complicated computations, no argu¬ 
ment, no opportunity for protests in arranging 
handicaps—just the thirty-foot lane and presto! 
all is done. Entries can be made during the 
progress of the contest while the committee sits 
back and takes its ease. 
The sea is vast. The surf fisher’s bait is small. 
The chances of a good fish finding it are remote. 
Yet, day after day the Spartan persists. 
Time goes on and the tournament arrives, and 
he goes out in his stoicism to encounter the 
thirty-foot lane. The caster’s handicap is no 
greater than the fisherman’s. A high average 
made upon the thirty-foot lane is certainly 
something far more to be proud of than the 
same average made upon the V-shaped court 
ninety feet wide at the 300-foot mark. 
The stoics and Spartans say of the latter that 
it is too easy. They commend the thirty-foot 
lane with its automatic handicapping feature to 
the users of the V-shaped court even as they 
commend the four-ounce lead—and are sitting 
tight. They claim that as a result of a triangu¬ 
lar court the ability of the long caster will be¬ 
come so apparent that necessity for a number 
of arbitrary classes, based upon past perform¬ 
ances, will soon arise, a contingency most re¬ 
mote where the thirty-foot lane imposes its de¬ 
mand for increasing accuracy with increasing 
length of cast. 
The adherents of the straight lane certainly 
have studied their ground well and will yield 
only to superior logic. They are not dogmatic, 
but firm in the belief that their position is well 
taken, and despite my preference for the tri¬ 
angular court, I have endeavored to present that 
position with fairness. At the same time I send 
a hurry call to Forest and Stream for ammuni¬ 
tion lest I, too, fall into line with the stoics. 
The editor’s suggestion above referred to was 
received in the same broad spirit in which it was 
offered, and the benefit of his wisdom and ex¬ 
perience with regard to the two. courts would 
not fail to be acceptable. A chance seems to 
have arisen to bring surf-casting contests to. a 
common basis, and in view of the tendency to 
get away from old standards in certain other 
directions, discussion of this point from all quar¬ 
ters would not now appear to be amiss. 
Switch Reel. 
[General discussion of this subject will be wel¬ 
comed by Forest and Stream. The only por'nt 
we wish to make is in favor of uniformity in 
methods followed by all casting clubs, to the end 
that records may be of value as a part of cast¬ 
ing history. The fact that the scores of clubs 
affiliated with the National Association have 
found the V-shaped court satisfactory seems to 
us a strong argument against the thirty-foot 
court, now employed by a single club wh : ch, for 
reasons unknown to us, has not joined hands 
with the National Association in its efforts to 
equalize all the conditions affecting casting. 
As we pointed out in a former note, the V- 
shaped court may be employed in contests for 
distance only, and for combined distahce and 
accuracy events. As the average of five dis¬ 
tance casts is generally insisted on, rather than 
the best single cast in five, as formerly, it fol¬ 
lows that a caster who can place his weight 
nearest the center line of any court in five trials, 
whatever his average distance, has a fairer claim 
to the head of the list than one who casts much 
further once or twice or thrice in his five efforts, 
and breaks his line or casts wide of the mark 
in his other trials. 
The advocates of a single new standard weight 
have not a leg to stand on. The 2[4-ounce 
weight has been standard since the year one of 
casting, and it will remain the standard while 
there are clubs on the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
and in France and England that endorse it. In¬ 
stead, they should bow to the will of the ma¬ 
jority. In this they will have as a precedent the 
action of the Casting Club of France, the 
Amateur Fly- and Bait-Casting Club and the 
British Sea Anglers’ Society of England. They 
had their own standards, and some of the mem¬ 
bers objected to a change, but the majority 
adopted the standard under which American 
records had all been made. Bearing on this 
point, it may be of interest to say that Forest 
and Stream was asked for standard weights of 
the American National Association, 2P2, and 
J^-ounce, and a set was supplied to the British 
casters, who copied them. 
Some of the surf-casters of the Jersey coast 
argue that they cannot do creditable casting with 
their fishing rods and 2p2-ounce weights. This 
is true, but unlike Mahomet, they insist that the 
mountain shall come to them. In the single¬ 
hand bait-casting there is a standard quarter- 
ounce weight, and a standard half-ounce weight, 
but we have not heard any caster complain that 
the quarter-ounce events should be abandoned 
because his half-ounce equipment is not suited to 
quarter-ounce casting. Instead, in order to com¬ 
pete, he must have one rod for half-ounce and 
another for quarter-ounce casting, or swallow 
his medicine with good grace. It remains, then, 
good argument in favor not only of the 2^2- 
ounce standard, but of others as well, for 3, 4, 6 
or even 8-ounce events, all of which are more 
or less standardized here and abroad. 
In the unlimited fly event there are men who 
are at their best with 12 and 13-ounce rods, while 
others do just as good casting with rods of 9 
or 10 ounces. For all the size of the fly is the 
same, and if the leader is limited, the rule only 
says that its length must be six feet, but not 
greater than two feet longer than the rod. The 
rod may be any length not to exceed np2 feet, 
but as 11 to 11 [4 feet is the favorite length, no 
one argues that the limit should be cut to 9 feet, 
just because he has a rod of that length.— 
Editor.] 
New Publications. 
Neighbors Unknown, by Charles G. D. Roberts. 
Decorated cloth, 260 pages, illustrated from 
drawings by Paul Branson, $1.50. New York, 
the Macmillan Conipany. 
Professor Roberts’ animal stories are too well 
known to need description, and these are similar 
to many others found in book form on the tables 
of those who are fond of this sort of entertain¬ 
ment. The illustrations are among the best that 
Branson has produced. 
The Trail of a Tenderfoot, by Stephen Cha 1 - 
mers. Cloth 254 pages, illustrated with 
sketches by PI. T. Dunn, C. F. Peters and J. 
M. Gleeson, $1.25. New York, The Outing 
Publishing Company. 
Among these shooting and fishing stories the 
best one relates to a buck which, stunned by a 
(Continued on page 826.) 
