AUG. 22, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
301 
Recent Publications. 
Favorite Fish and Fishing, by James A. Hen- 
shall, M.D. Cloth, illustrated, 192 pages, 
$1.25 net. New York, the Outing Publish¬ 
ing Company. 
Readers of the Doctor’s many magazine 
articles may now have them in a handsomely 
bound and illustrated book for their libraries. 
The chapters are: The Black Bass: the Game- 
fish of the People; The Grayling: the Flower 
of Fishes; The Trout: The Angler’s Pride; His 
Majesty, the Silver King; and Florida Fish and 
Fishing. 
Despite the marvelous popularity of the short 
bait-casting rod of to-day and its almost uni¬ 
versal use in America for bass and other fish¬ 
ing, the Doctor couples it and the many-hook 
artificial baits as twin evils. In this, it seems, 
he ignores the fact that not all bait-casters em¬ 
ploy mere stiff sticks, many of the short rods 
being as pliable and delicate, relatively and cer¬ 
tainly lighter than the 8 j 4 foot rod advocated 
by him for so many years. 
“For myself,” he says, “I have always found 
the eight-foot rod and horizontal underhand cast 
equal to all emergencies of fishing for black 
bass, pike and mascalonge. In overhand casting 
the bait is started on its flight from a height of 
ten or twelve feet, and necessarily makes quite 
a splash when it strikes the water. On the other 
hand, with the horizontal cast the minnow is 
projected to the desired spot with very little 
disturbance.” 
We hold no brief for any rod, but in view of 
the fact that the short bait-casting rod has taken 
the place of the clumsier long rod, and seems 
to have come to stay, all that can be done is 
try to make it in every way a gentle angler’s 
rod. One can employ the side cast with it T 
he so desires; in fact, a great many cast from 
the side by preference when extreme accuracy 
is not desirable. We commenced bass fishing 
more than a third of a century ago with long 
rods, but find the five to six foot rod, weighing 
less than an ounce to the foot, much pleasanter 
as well as handier to fish with, particularly from 
a boat. 
Many of the baits, armed with three to five 
treble hooks, are certainly an abomination, but 
these trebles can and often are replaced with 
one to three single hooks. Rigged thus, they are 
much less troublesome in catching in weeds and 
in the meshes of the landing net. Single hook 
advocates often remove all of the trebles and 
substitute a single hook at the end. It is a moot 
question whether a single hook is effective when 
placed thus, for bass strike so often at the side 
that the hook may miss or foul-hook them. 
Dr. Henshall has always maintained that the 
reel should be placed under the rod, with the 
handle to the right. “As the reel originated in 
England,” he says, “it is to be presumed that 
the manufacturers and anglers of that country 
know its proper position on the rod.” Possi¬ 
bly; but if so, why do English manufacturers 
waste so much time attempting to perfect de¬ 
vices to control the reel in casting when the 
thumb or a leather brake is so much simpler 
when the reel is used on top of the rod, as in 
bass or sea fishing? Why, also, is the English 
reel mechanically imperfect? No American 
manufacturer would put a handle on one side 
of a reel-plate and omit the counter weight on 
the other side, to prevent friction and wear. 
Nearly all British reels are so made, and the 
best posted anglers on that side admit they are 
not properly balanced. 
Some fly reels are used underneath the rod 
in playing a fish; others on top. That is a matter 
of preference; but multiplying reels are much 
handier on top. That is one reason why they 
are generally so placed. 
“Neither multiplying nor click reels were in¬ 
tended to be used in that position,” says the 
Doctor, “and because some anglers prefer to 
place them so is no argument that it is right.” 
Fortunately, therefore, for the vast army of ex¬ 
pert anglers who, according to the Doctor’s 
standards, use their reels improperly, the Ameri¬ 
can multiplying reel can be used upside down, 
end up, backward or in any other position its 
owner elects and it remains the best the world 
Fifth—Casts as No. 2, with 4-ounce lead for 
accuracy. Three targets, 18 feet in diameter, 
will be placed on center line of courts, at dis¬ 
tances of 75, 100 and 125 feet respectively; two 
casts allowed at each. 
Sixth—Bait casting, 1 ounce lead, six casts in 
all. Rods 6 ! 4 to 12 feet. Any fishing reel may 
be used and any fishing line that will lift 8 
pounds dead weight. Trace 2 feet. Competitors 
to cast standing on a stool or box at targets, as 
in No. 5, except that only three casts will be 
allowed at each of the two targets 75 feet and 
100 feet. 
The Fecundity of Fish. 
Although the ova are in most instances pro¬ 
portionately smaller than in any other class of 
animals, the ovaria in many fish are larger than 
From an oil painting by A. D. Turner. 
Montana Grayling. (Thymallus montaims.) 
Reproduced from “Favorite Fish and Fishing.” 
has ever produced. The Patent Office has been 
swamped with reel inventions, but the typical 
multiplying reel of to-day differs only in minor 
particulars from the reel of the early ’30’s. 
British Casting Tournament. 
The British Sea Anglers’ Society has arranged 
a series of six events which are to be held dur¬ 
ing the summer, as it is believed they will give 
the members good practice and assist them in 
fishing. The conditions follow: 
Th.e first, casting in any style, 4-ounce lead, 
three casts; rods, 7 feet to 10 feet; reels, 4 inches 
in diameter and over; lines, cotton, hemp, or 
flax; trace, 3 feet with lead at bottom. 
Second—Three casts, overhead casting with 4- 
ounce leads, to be made between two poles 12 
feet high and 10 feet apart. Rods and tackle is 
No. 1. 
Third—Three casts as No. 2. Details the same, 
but with 6-ounce lead. 
Fourth—Three casts as No. 2; 4-ounce lead 
for distance and accuracy. 
the body. Thus the herring produces from 20,000 
to 37,000; the carp, upward of 200,000; the tench, 
380,000; the flounder, a million.—Med. Ang. in 
Wales. 
MR. HARMER’S TABLE. 
Carp . 
Cod . 
Flounder . 3oz. 
Herring . 4oz. 
Lobster . .' 14oz. 
Mackerel . 20oz. 
Perch. 8%oz. 
Pike . 56oz. 
Prawn .127gr. 
Shrimp . HVod. 
Roach . 2oz. 
Smelt . 2oz. 
Sole . 14oz. 
Tench . 40oz. 
—Phil. Transact., Article XXX. 
According to Leuwenhoeck, a single sturgeon’s 
roe amounted to the amazing number of one 
hundred and fifty thousand millions of eggs, and 
the roe of a crab to four millions and ninety- 
six thousand; also a middling size cod to nine 
millions and three hundred and eighty-four thou¬ 
sand.—London Fishing Gazette. 
W eight. 
No. of eggs. 
. 16oz. 
101,200 
. 151bs. 
3,687,700 
3oz. 
133,407 
4oz. 
32,663 
. 14oz. 
7,227 
. 20oz. 
454,961 
SV2OZ. 
28,323 
49,304 
3,806 
. 17 y 2 d. 
3,057 
. 2oz. 
9,604 
2oz. 
38,278 
. 14oz. 
38,772 
. 40oz. 
3S3.252 
