Jan. i6, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
lOT 
tackle, and it’s a fishing trip, so nothing short 
of measles or smallpox will keep him away.” 
When the songht-for advice had been given 
and several early calls registered, the assembly 
broke up in a very happy frame of mind. 
“There is no denying it,” said Jim Curtis, as 
we reached our many-bedded room. “Trout 
fishing takes at once the cleanest and most 
complete hold upon men of any of the sports. 
In its quiet way it can hold its own against the 
banging and the shouting which go with nearly 
every other form of outdoor recreation. Those 
men down stairs to-night were just as much 
beside themselves as a lot of children going to 
a Christmas tree, and the lies they told were as 
harmless as the Santa Claus doctrine.” 
“Well, they have a right to be up in the 
air,” Old Billy asserted. “Most of them are 
bricked in all the year round with only two or 
three days for fishing.” 
“I don’t know,” Billy replied. “I expect you 
fellows would put her up to do something. But 
joking aside; just think of that man who was 
talking with me. When he is on the stream 
there is nothing in the world he wants quite 
so bad as a few trout, and the chances are nine 
out of ten he won't get enough to make his 
basket smell fishy.” 
“But, Billy,” Henry urged, “he will have had 
his day on the stream and in the woods, if he 
doesn’t get anything else.” 
“That argument don’t hold water,” Robert 
broke in. “What inspiration a man finds in 
communing with nature is largely a matter be¬ 
tween himself and his Creator, and he should 
not be charged with it in his human account. 
So far as his relations with men go he wants 
some fish. Now, you take that fellow Billy is 
talking about, arid when he is getting on to 
the train to go back to his family and friends 
without a fin in his basket, he would swap a 
whole carload of well-I’ve-had-my-day-in-the- 
woods philosophy for five or six good trout.” 
“Amen!” said Jim. “When I was coming up 
on the train this afternoon there was a man 
in such a hurry to get to fishing that he took 
off his shoes and got his waders ready to put 
on, fifty miles down the road. Then he hap¬ 
pened to think that he hadn’t set his leaders 
soaking, and he jumped up and ran the whole 
length of the car in his stocking feet to get to 
the water faucet.” 
“I’ve almost decided,” said Robert, “to use a 
few millions of my money to endow some 
chairs of trout fishing around in the different 
colleges. Most every little two-cent university 
has got a gymnasium or something of the-kind 
bigger than a carbuncle stuck onto it, and the 
library business is about played out, so a chair 
of fishing is all there is left for me to perpetu¬ 
ate my name. At one time when my money got 
to resting kind o’ heavy on me along with my 
work in the shop, and weeding the garden, I 
thought I’d put it into a hide-horns-and-tallow 
theological seminary, but I guess the chair of 
trout fishing is the best notion.” 
At the edge of the nearby woods a whip- 
poor-will hid his homely face in the dark while 
he sent his welcome voice to plead for him. 
In another place, not so easy of location but 
within olfactory ran.ge, there was a skunk which 
some one had manifestly neglected to hold up 
by the tail. However, this aroma did not an¬ 
noy me: in fact, I rather like a good skunk— 
that is, one which is not too pressing in his at¬ 
tention or of an irritable temperament. But 
take a mild spring evening, with cow bells and 
frogs and whip-poor-wills in it, and then give 
it a good dash of skunk and you have added 
character to the whole mixture. At any rate, 
that is the way it seems to me; so I went on 
thinking, and if any angling student finds a help¬ 
ful word in the chapters which follow, he may 
thank Robert Bruce and the skunk for it. 
Winfield T. Sherwood. 
Tournament Casting. 
Chicago, Ill., Jan. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The amateur and professional ques¬ 
tion in casting circles is waxing warm, llere- 
tofore the minority, demanding tight lines and 
a distinct separation, have had the floor all to 
themselves, and have been airing their views 
with scarcely a dissenting voice. I now note 
that the majority who have never looked with 
favor upon “class legislation” in this game are 
beginning to sit up and take notice and make 
themselves heard. The article in Forest and 
Stream of Dec. 19, by A. Jay Marsh, sounds 
good to me and I believe will be endorsed by 
more than four-fifths of the tournament casters. 
It will probably be freely admitted that in 
Chicago and vicinity there may be found as 
high a class of fly- and bait-casters as in any 
place in the country. It has been my pleasure 
to meet a great many first class amateurs and 
I have frequently discussed the professional and 
amateur question with them. I do not believe 
that one in five is in sympathy with the present 
rule, to say nothing of making it still more 
stringent. Very few that I have talked with 
objected to meeting the so-called professional 
on equal terms in a contest, and few, if any, 
considered the game injured in any degree by 
the attendance and participation of the profes¬ 
sionals. On the contrary, from my personal ex¬ 
perience in Chicago, the promised attendance of 
an Eastern veteran (now a professional) imme¬ 
diately stimulated interest in a coming tourna¬ 
ment. Fly-casters became ambitious to excel 
him in any past or new records, and bait-casters 
were determined not to allow him to carry away 
any high honors in their game. 
I am a firm believer in the oft-repeated state¬ 
ment that, regardless of what may arise in the 
future, the time is not yet ripe, and there is 
no present call or necessity for a division in 
the ranks of casters. If the day ever comes 
when the rod and reel manufacturers follow the 
present practice of gun and ammunition makers, 
and hire the best casters in the country to travel 
around the circuit for the sole purpose of ex¬ 
ploiting their respective products, then and not 
until then will I be in favor of either the present 
or proposed rules. 
With a very few exceptions the amateurs are 
head and shoulders over the professionals in 
proficiency. Why, then, fear to meet them ? 
What if a rod or reel maker does occasionally 
go in and win with a rod or reel of his own 
making? It will only stimulate other makers 
to better their products. The pardonable pride 
and satisfaction in the heart of a tournament 
winner is bound to be somewhat dimmed by the 
knowledge of the cold, hard fact that perhaps 
he won because one or more men were barred 
from the contests because they made a rod or 
sold some fish hooks. ' A winner takes pride 
in winning in fast company. 
As a general rule the makers and dealers in 
rods and reels are not specially expert in the 
use of same. They get most of their ideas for 
improvements from the various individuals who 
buy and use their goods. Their energies are 
directed to the making of a better article and 
not to the capture of records or prizes. They 
attend tournaments for the purpose of exchang¬ 
ing ideas and perfecting their devices, and the 
few who have entered the contests usually 
wanted to be good fellows and help things along 
and have received little consolation from the 
prize list. 
The present rule, barring such from partici¬ 
pation with amateurs, has met with little resist¬ 
ance from the persons most interested. They 
bowed to the will of the supposed majority and 
as a rule stepped down and out. The trouble 
is, when you begin to rule on a certain point 
there is no stopping place. There is always 
one other fellow to reach, and soon the rule 
is dilated to cover the case of a dangerous op¬ 
ponent who was not remotely considered in the 
original application. 
In a certain Western club one of its most 
ardent, loyal and lovable members conducts a 
book and stationary store. Included in his stock 
is a small assortment of fishing tackle. He Has 
been ruled a professional. In another case an 
enthusiastic member was manager of the sport¬ 
ing goods department of a wholesale house. He 
is a professional, while a fellow employee in the 
tinware department of the same store would be 
an amateur. 
The history of casting and fishing shows a 
constant inclination on the part of the faith¬ 
ful to devise something “just a little better.” 
The late Fred Divine once told me that prac¬ 
tically all of his improvements in rods were 
suggested by fishermen. It sometimes happens 
that a caster has a bright idea and also the in¬ 
genuity to put it into material form. He de¬ 
velops a hook, a casting weight or a bait and 
proceeds to delight his fellow anglers by sell¬ 
ing them a few. He will probably never get 
back half the money he puts into it, but if he 
has any pride he will supply the derqand even 
at a loss, hut lo, he becomes a professional if 
the advocates of a still more stringent rule are 
successful. 
I would say, first, do away with all rules re¬ 
lating to professionals and amateurs. If this is 
considered too radical, let the present rule stand. 
It was made with the avowed object of allow¬ 
ing a man to exercise the brains God gave him, 
and invent a fish hook once in a while that will 
have a tendency to reduce the visible supply of 
profanity. 
I must confess that I am somewhat surprised 
at the lack of discussion on this subject. The 
few, whose ox may have been gored, are doing 
about all of the talking, while the many are 
idly listening, evidently taking no interest. Let 
us hear more from San Francisco. Kansas City, 
Milwaukee. Racine, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids 
and the host of new affiliated clubs. How do 
you feel about it, boys? When you attend a 
tournament do you want to meet the best, or 
shall we make more and more stringent rules 
to bar good fellows who will hurt the game 
more by their absence than by their presence? 
Fred N. Feet. 
