In the Angler’s Workroom.—III. 
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Cork Dummies for Reels. 
If you use a long-spool tournament multiplying 
reel in casting, with a line thinner than H size, 
you will need a dummy one inch or inch in 
diameter. The common practice is to use old 
line for a dummy, or as the English anglers term 
it, a back line, winding the casting line over it 
until the spool is properly filled. But as this 
dummy must also be dried with the casting line, 
it is too much to tax yourself with the care of 
200 yards or more of easily-snarled line after a 
day’s fishing or practice. Then, too, the dummy 
must be wound on the reel with care to keep the 
surface even and smooth for the casting line. 
A better plan is to fit cork disks on the spool. 
These can be obtained at cork stores, either 
vaseline-bottle size or regular rod^grasp corks. 
Select four perfect corks and bore holes through 
the exact center of each, concaving the ends of 
two so that they will fit the convex spool ends. 
Take the spool out of the reel while fitting corks. 
Split all the corks from the central holes to the 
rim, using a very thin and sharp knife blade. 
Obviously the hole in each cork must be a trifle 
larger than the spindle of spool, over which the 
end corks are to be fitted first. Now slip the 
If 
third cork into place, and while there is room, 
j coat each one very lightly with shellac. Split 
the fourth cork so that it will fill the remaining 
space snugly and slip it on, shellacking the slit 
in each cork and turning all so that two slits 
do not come opposite each other. Wind a bit of 
thread over all to hold them in place until dry, 
then remove the thread and shave off all uneven 
places. Smoothing the cork to perfect form 
should be done in a lathe with a fine file, but if 
a lathe is not at hand, assemble the reel, and 
fasten it lightly in a vise after covering the jaws 
1 with cloth to protect the reel-strap. Turn the 
1 handle with one hand and hold the file with the 
other, being careful that it does not touch the 
spool-end. Exert the least possible pressure in 
grinding the cork drum to perfect form, blowing 
the cork dust away from the reel frequently, 
j Measure the diameter of the drum, and when it 
is correct, clean the reel and wind the casting 
line thereon. It should fill the spool three- 
[ fourths, allowing for an increase when the line 
i is wet. The cork being extremely light, the 
weight of the wet line is placed further away 
from the axis of spool, giving the reel increased 
efficiency in casting. 
For a reel whose diameter is two inches and 
spool 134 inches in length, the cork dummy 
should be i or i 1/16 inches in diameter for a 
j tournament line, and this should be sufficient for 
the fishing reel, which requires less diameter of 
wound line than the tournament reel. 
The simplest way to determine the correct 
i diameter for the cork dummy is this: Wind the 
i' fine casting line on the naked spindle, and on 
this wind common thread until the spool is 
j three-fo”rths filled. Cut the thread and remove 
it from the reel; remove the casting line and re- 
j place the thread on the reel. When it is all 
wound on, measure its mean diameter, which is 
correct for the cork dummy. 
Generally speaking, one can safely place more 
line on a tournament than on a fishing reel, as 
he watches the line carefully while spooling it 
in tournament work, but may not do so while 
playing a fish, and if careless may foul the pillars 
and a sudden jerk by the fish may break the line. 
Inspecting the Rods. 
When you come to the fishing rods it is a 
good plan to take them all out of the tackle 
cabinet or place where they are kept, joint them 
up and examine them in a superficial way to see 
if any ferrules are loose and if there are any 
kinks in tips that can be straightened before the 
angling season comes around. Too often anglers 
get into thfe habit of standing rod joints in a 
corner in a closet. If they are protected by wood 
forms, leather cases or aluminum or bamboo 
tubes, there is little danger of tips and joints be¬ 
coming crooked, but if left in silesia cases, tied 
with tapes, straightening must follow. It is 
handy to keep a rod in a silesia case, but often 
one tape is tied a little more securely than others, 
and the swell of the hand-grasp will help to 
curve the tips if the rod is left in a dry place 
several weeks. The beauty of a fine trout rod 
can be marred in a short time merely by stand¬ 
ing the parts in the tackle cabinet, with the tops 
resting on the rear wall three inches further back 
than the bottom of parts, so that they are off 
the perpendicular the merest trifle, as one can see. 
The better 1 plan is to suspend all the tips from 
thin brass brads, then stand the joints as nearly 
perpendicular as possible, or fit plugs in the fer¬ 
rules, each with a thin screweye, so that all parts 
can be suspended. Better still, hang the jointed 
rod from its top in a cool closet. This applies 
to split bamboo rods as well as all wood rods, 
for while the latter are more easily put out of 
shape during the frequent changes of temperature 
in winter, split bamboo will also lose its shape 
in time under the conditions named, particularly 
the slender tips and joints. 
If a wood rod becomes hopelessly crooked 
through long use and heavy strain, hang it from 
a peg driven in the picture moulding in a cool 
room, where it will not touch anything, and leave 
a rather heavy reel on it, the latter, of course, 
covered with its chamois bag or a bit of cloth 
to keep out dust. After a few damp days you 
will notice the change, and before the fishing 
season opens this rod should be free from “set.” 
Rods used in tournament bait-casting become set 
in the direction of the greatest strain, and this 
is hard to correct, but suspending the rod will 
help. Applying heat, bending in the opposite di¬ 
rection and leaving the tip under weights are all 
too severe for a favorite rod, but it should be 
straightened if ordinary means do not fail, for 
a crooked rod and accuracy casting are not boon 
companions. 
Another plan—and a good one—is to fasten 
the crooked tip or joint to a steel rod or any 
small rod that is nerfectly straight. Wind soft 
tape loosely around both, being sure that the tip 
lies true with the axis of the rod. 
Rod Forms and Cases. 
Before going on it may be well to mention rod 
cases briefly. 
The big aluminum companies will supply you 
with ^sections of aluminum tubing long enough 
for rod tips for a few cents. These can be had 
in several diameters suitable for rod cases, the 
tubing varying in thickness. One-sixteenth or 
1/32 is thick enough if the diameter is ij4 or 
i 34 inches. 
Drive a cork in one end, first coating it with 
shellac. A cork can be loosely fitted to the other 
end, or a screw cap of brass put on. Some rod 
makers supply these tubes fitted with brass caps, 
and serviceable rod cases they are, for they will 
stand hard knocks without injury to the rod in¬ 
side. The latter is further protected by its cloth 
case. The aluminum tubes are more and more 
used by anglers, particularly those whose rods 
are in two or three pieces with separate handles, 
the latter being carried in a coat pocket or in the 
tackle box. 
If the angler makes his own bait-casting rod, 
and the latter consists of a long tip and a 
separate handle, or one piece only, it will not 
be found easy to obtain a grooved wood form 
long enough for it. This can be made from a 
piece of i^4 inch white pine by grooving one side 
its entire length, then enlarging the groove at 
the handle end and where the guides come, until 
the rod will lie snugly in the groove beneath the 
surface of the form. Plane off the corners, at¬ 
tach tapes in four or five places to prevent the 
rod falling out, and obtain a cloth case to fit the 
fo rm. The aluminum tubing will be handy, 
though a trifle heavy if 5or 6 feet long. How¬ 
ever, one-piece rods are expensive, not entirely 
convenient to carry safely in town, and should 
be well protected. A rod kept in a wood form 
is not likely to become crooked. 
The standard sole leather rod cases found in 
the trade are not expensive, and are entirely 
satisfactory; even for shipping rods in as bag¬ 
gage; and if the rods in them are in grooved 
forms, will withstand rough handling. 
Perry D. Frazer, 
[to be continued.] 
Squids for Tarpon. 
Bluefish squids are good not only for blue- 
fish, but also for sea trout, cavallo and a few 
other kinds, including kingfish occasionally, but 
tarpon, the gamest fish that swims, has been 
thought heretofore to take to nothing except 
mullet. 
This idea was shattered a couple of Sundays 
ago, when a couple of the Taber brothers, with 
their wives and friends, were trolling with a 
squid for bluefish on the way back from a trip 
to Jupiter in Capt. A. D. Merchant’s launch, 
Rosalind. 
Just up by ,the mouth of the canal a fish struck 
the squid and was fastened and then the fun 
began. 
The first break showed the silvery sides of a 
beautiful tarpon who seriously and energetically 
objected to being brought in out of the wet, but 
as the hook was strong and well fastened and 
the fisherman was cool, patient and determined, 
the struggle was kept up till finally the finny 
beauty was tired out by its exertions, gave up 
the fight and was landed at last safely in the 
boat. Its weight was fifteen pounds.—Palm 
Beach News. 
“The Opal Sea,” by John C. Van Dyke, is a 
valuable addition to the literature of the great 
and mysterious expanses of water that have* awed 
and cowed and lured the people of many coun¬ 
tries. Myth, legend, history, romance, sport— 
all those things that have had to do with the 
people of countless ages of sea-lovers and sea- 
rovers, are treated with a master hand. Pub¬ 
lished by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 
b.ditor Forest and Stream: 
Inclosed find P. O. order for $3 to pay subscription 
for current year. This makes mv twenty-third -year as a 
regular reader of your paper. The new departure last 
year was “all to the good,” and Forest and Stream is 
very much handier to read than before. 
H. L. Lake, M.D. 
Two reels of the same size, both fitted with cork drum ; 1 i-lG inch in diameter, the actual weight of cork being 
about 30 grains. The right-hand reel shows the cork drum, and that on the left-hand 100 yards of tourna-" 
ment line, wound on drum, and a seven-foot leader of heavy sill/ line. 
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