102 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Jan. 15, 1910. 
My own personal complaint in the matter is 
that the rules governing the contests are such 
as to forbid any but a few experts from enter¬ 
ing tournaments. Men like myself, who have 
an opportunity for practical fishing but once or 
twice a year; whose rods in the interval are 
never touched; whose business and professional 
engagements are such that they have no time 
to practice, are debarred, when they would like 
to enter and share in the burdens and pleasures 
of the tournaments. 
Why should this be true? A man who can 
cast a good fly, who is a practical fly-fisherman, 
who desires to participate, who is worthy of 
membership, should be recognized and given an 
opportunity to compete in a class with others 
similarly situated. But no man whose cast is 
limited to eighty feet is willing to enter a con¬ 
test with a man who casts no feet. Such a man 
might look on at the sport, and regret that he 
could not enter it, but he could never be in¬ 
duced to become a participant, for ridiculous de¬ 
feat would be the preordained result. But is not 
it his right to play the game upon fair terms if 
he so desires? Why should there not be at least 
two novice classes—say seventy and eight feet? 
What is the practical result of the unwar¬ 
ranted, illiberal and viciously ignorant rejection 
of the few first class so-called professionals, and 
the adoption of rules which restrict the tourna¬ 
ments to only a few favored amateurs? It is 
to exclude ninety-nine per cent, of the ardent 
fly-fisherman, and as it now stands, the name 
of the National Association ought to be changed 
to that of “The National Association of Scientifi¬ 
cally Selected Trophy Grabbers.” What we need 
is the expert “trust busters.” And if this is not 
coming I am mistaken. The scant attendance 
and enthusiasm of the last tournament, with 
the openly expressed discontent, was emphasized 
in the inability to get a quorum at the annual 
meeting. The old officers are now in charge by 
reason alone of this apathy—no great tribute to 
them or the virility of the body. The associa¬ 
tion needs new blood, new officers and some im¬ 
portant changes in its rules if it expects to con¬ 
tinue in business. The annual distribution of 
prizes among the same dozen or so of men can¬ 
not go on without turning the association into 
a last year’s crow’s nest. With the gates locked 
and barred as they are now by the rules, why 
indeed should the association go to the expense 
of a tournament? Why should not the choSen 
selected elect meet at a good dinner, safely shel¬ 
tered from the hoi polloi, and by lot divide out 
the blue ribbons? 
If the National Association has not sense 
enough to adopt a proper definition of a pro¬ 
fessional, and generosity enough to open the 
gates to all fly-fishermen, then such of the clubs 
as are protesting against this situation ought to 
withdraw and form a new one, where intelli¬ 
gence and fair dealing will prevail. And I, for 
one, will gladly aid in giving the matter this 
direction unless these just and proper conces¬ 
sions are made. I will agree to contribute to 
such new association, a fly- and bait-casting club 
in this city, as a member. We may not be able 
to carry away any cups, but we can bear our 
part of the expense and enjoy our share of the 
fun. 
In a total experience of fifteen years of fly¬ 
fishing in many different parts of America and 
Canada I have yet to meet with an unjust or 
ungenerous act at the hands of a fly-fisherman 
on stream or lake, though a perfect stranger. It 
was reserved for the National Association to 
first exhibit injustice, illiberality and a fatuous 
folly, when it should in truth have represented 
the highest and best of all that is good in this 
splendid sport. 
I inclose you my certified check for $ro to 
be delivered to the man who can show a similar 
definition of professionalism in any other sport, 
or who will give one sane, sound reason (not 
an assertion) for the rule which cannot be pro¬ 
vided for by the current definition, or by an 
ordinary club rule governing the conduct of 
members. You to judge. Chas. T. Hopkins. 
[Mr. Hopkins’ check is in our hands. 
The National Association was formed at Kala¬ 
mazoo for two purposes: To standardize fly- 
and bait-casting in America, and to hold na¬ 
tional tournaments. Since then attempts have 
been made to show that its scope is wider, and 
a few of its members have performed work of 
real benefit to anglers, but in the main it has 
succeeded in accomplishing nothing of value to 
the anglers at large, though its regulation of 
casting as a sport has brought about the condi¬ 
tion sought by its promoters. 
The so-called professional question is the shoal 
over which the officers have been unable to 
navigate their craft, burdened as it is with its 
pompous, cumbersome title. The solution of the 
problem is either to throw the pilot or the cargo, 
or both, overboard. 
There are no professional fly- and bait-casters 
in America. Compared with the number of ang¬ 
lers who cast in contests, there are very few 
persons directly connected with the fishing tackle 
trade who take active part in these affairs. The 
rule as to professionals was made before a clear 
understanding of its effect was had. It was 
originally adopted by one club and for the sole 
purpose of prohibiting tackle men from holding 
office—not because there was the slightest ob¬ 
jection to them as individuals, but to prevent the 
possibility of any friction through seeming 
favoritism. There are clubs whose headquarters 
are in stores, and naturally the patronage of the 
members is controlled by those shops. 
Following this lead, the national association 
adopted this rule and blindly applied it to tour¬ 
naments. Wrongly applied, the rule is like a 
sieve whose meshes are not of the proper size 
for the material to be sifted; particles to be held 
pass through and vice versa. The result is far¬ 
cical.— Editor.] 
Capt. Chas. Barr and Schooner Westward. 
Capt. Charles Barr is to have charge of 
the new schooner Westward, which is now 
building at Herreshoffs for Alexander S. Coch¬ 
ran. Capt. Barr is now abroad, and it is said 
he has been studying the model of the new 
Fife schooner building in Germany against 
which the new Westward will race this sum¬ 
mer. Capt. Barr will not return to this coun¬ 
try until Westward is nearly ready, and will 
then fit the yacht out preparatory to starting on 
the voyage across the Atlantic.. 
British yachtsmen are much interested in the 
coming visit of Westward and Capt. Barr to 
their waters. The Scottish Field recently 
printed a short sketch of Capt. Barr. It said: 
“There has been no more successful career in 
modern yachting than his. When his brother 
John was rising into fame as a clever, daring, 
resourceful sailor of open racing boats, and 
such io-tonners as Blanche, Quiraing and Nep¬ 
tune, Charles was engaged in as prosaic an 
occupation as could well be imagined. He was 
serving his apprenticeship to the grocery trade 
in a large store in Greenock. 
“But while he sawed down ham and weighed 
out sugar, he was dreaming dreams of a differ¬ 
ent career, with the result that he turned his 
back on the grocery business, and got John to 
take him with him in the yachts in the summer 
season, and the flounder-trawling smacks in the 
winter time. 
“Charles was a ‘lad o’ pairts,’ and early in 
his career he developed a desire to see sailing 
on a scale of more importance than the racing 
and making of passages about the coast of 
Britain could furnish, and on a crew being 
required to take the racing 20-tonner Clara from 
Southampton to New York in 1885, he ‘signed 
on’ as an A.B. The passage was of the most 
tedious and uneventful description. All the 
same, it exercised such a sway over Barr’s 
adventurous spirit that when, three years after¬ 
wards, the new 40-footer Minerva required to 
be taken from Fairlie to Boston, U. S. A., he 
offered to do the work, and his offer having 
been accepted, with the aid of a fine old Loch¬ 
ranza seaman, Capt. Kerr, and a couple of 
young Fairlie carpenters, James Davidson and 
William McAlay, of the same adventurous tem¬ 
perament as himself, he did take her over in 
excellent style. Barr became so accomplished 
a navigator that a few years ago he won the 
warm praise of the German Emperor himself 
for one of his yachting trips across the Atlan¬ 
tic; but in his Minerva days he had not the 
necessary skill to enable him to find his way 
over the trackless ocean, hence Capt. Kerr was 
taken as navigating officer. The young fel¬ 
lows, however, wrought the ship themselves. 
So little homage, too, did they pay to the maj¬ 
esty of the ocean that they ‘cracked on’ as if 
their tiny egg-shell of a boat had been a high- 
grade clipper of 1,500 tons. They even gave 
her the spinnaker for hours at a time, as if they 
had been merely engaged in a racing run from 
Rothesay to Largs. 
“This carrying of the spinnaker led to one of 
