Vo!. LXXXVII 
OCTOBER, 1917 
No. 10 
THE GREAT SURF-CASTING TOURNAMENT 
NOWHERE ELSE IN ALL THE WORLD CAN SUCH WON¬ 
DERFUL WORK WITH ROD AND REEL BE WITNESSED 
By LEONARD HULIT 
T OURNAMENT casting in club events 
has become a most entrancing and 
eagerly awaited affair along the en¬ 
tire coast. Rivalry is keen and the prizes 
offered of great value. From each of the 
different fishing clubs teams are selected 
and their performances are backed up in 
anticipation Dy the factions of which they 
are representative. 
It is no boast to claim that no¬ 
where else in the entire world can 
such perfect work with rod and reel 
be witnessed as in these 
events. Men with brawn 
and athletic spring have 
been practicing month by 
month for the eventful day, 
each one anxious to further 
the interests of his home 
team as well as to catch the 
halo of glory which rests 
with the conqueror of space 
with the darting lead. If I 
rightly recall, the Liberty 
Island Fishing Club was 
the first to hold these 
events, and I somewhere 
have the records of their 
first contest, the first prize 
—a twenty dollar gold piece 
—being won on a cast inside 
of one hundred and fifty 
feet. So rapidly and per¬ 
sistently has the sport pro¬ 
gressed that now a cast of 
400 feet is not unusual. In 
fact, the greatest cast ever 
made was by Mr. Charles 
Elingshauser of the Mid¬ 
land Beach Club at Ocean 
City, N. J., on Saturday, 
August 18th, of the present 
year, when the world’s rec¬ 
ord was established again 
with a cast of 426 feet 6 
inches. This marvelous per¬ 
formance was supplemented 
by casts of 415 feet and 417 
feet respectively. No one who has not 
witnessed such a feat has any conception 
of the wonderful finesse necessary to its 
accomplishment, the delicate thumbing of 
the reel as the line is paid out must be as 
accurate as perfection itself. No fraction 
of a grain of pressure too much can be 
given nor can the thumb be released en¬ 
tirely for any fraction of a second else the 
line may overrun and tangling ensue,—all 
must be done with absolute precision and 
timing. Neither can such results be ob¬ 
tained from ordinary rods and reels; it is 
only from the finest possible product of 
the tackle maker that scores as recorded 
are to be had. The reels used are 
marvels of delicacy and precision of 
action, specially constructed for this 
work and are as finely ad¬ 
justed as a chronometer, 
and in the case of one man¬ 
ufacturer, are made with no 
front cross bar, thus doing 
away with any possible 
friction as the line passes 
out. Rods are also special¬ 
ly constructed for this work 
and are calibered so as to 
give the greatest possible 
spring with just enough 
backbone to withstand the 
terrible snap and strain to 
which they are subjected. 
While some use the green- 
heart rod, the majority are 
made from split bamboo— 
which is more resilient and 
is lighter in weight. To 
make all more attractive 
many have the rod wrapped 
with highly colored silk 
completely covering it and 
then coated with trans¬ 
parent varnish making a 
finish of the most beautiful 
kind. Of course all such 
rods are finished with the 
finest of agate mountings 
set in German silver; one 
innovation the present sea¬ 
son is a rod mounted in 
gold throughout. 
The Ocean City Club has 
given a beautiful silver cup 
Experts in Action 
