Reel Memories Archives
1883 - The Reel's Position
On The Rod
A lively controversy has been going on in the sportsmen’s journals as
to where the reel should be placed on the rod to do the most good. Some of
the contestants are dogmatic in asserting their methods; some suggestive,
and all, no doubt, are reaching for the truth in the best interest of the
angler. In this light the experience of an old angler is here given.
Habitual use of a reel in one way tends to make us believe it is the
best, but it does not always follow that it is so; for the same habit of
using it another way would be equally conclusive. The place for the reel
may depend upon the fish you propose to catch and your method of casting
for them. If you choose your position for the reel on that basis, and
habitual use in that way, with an enlightened judgment, confirms its
success, then, do doubt, you have found, for yourself at least, the
correct position.
There are four ways in which the reel may be placed upon the rod, all
of which are, more or less, in use by the angling craft, viz.:
- Above the hand-Piece and on top of the rod.
- Above the hand-piece and underneath the rod.
- Below the hand-piece and on top of the rod.
- Below the hand-piece and underneath the rod, the handle of the reel
being always to the right-hand.
To the old angler who has acquired a fixed habit in anyone of these
ways, and finds it “good enough for me,” we make no appeal, since, if
he has not actually chosen the best method, he certainly believes
he has. Honest belief hanged the boor innocent “witches.” But to the
beginner who desires to start right on the best experience of others, and
acquire a habit of its use, based on reason in preference to one of simple
habit, without rhyme or reason, something may be
said.
First: For fishing with a Henshall or similar bass rod, with a minnow
or spoon bait for bass, pike, pickerel, mascalonge, etc., if you place
your reel above your hand and on top of the rod, you will be able to cast
your line further and better, and can easily prevent an over-run, by
placing your thumb on the spool.
The expert bass fishers, with bait and spoon, on the St. Clair River,
among the islands in Lake Erie, and on the St. Lawrence, adopt this mode,
and it is the one recommended by Dr. J. A. Henshall, the best authority in
the world on bass fishing, except that Dr. Henshall prefers to place his
reel underneath the rod, but when casting turns his rod over, with the
reel on top.
Second: if the reel be placed above the hand-piece and under the rod
for bass fishing, with bait, the position would be found very inconvenient
in controlling the line when casting at a distance, unless the rod be
turned over to bring the reel on top.
In casting flies with a fly rod it is all right to have the reel
beneath the rod and the line hanging loosely in the rings, but it is an
awkward place for the reel above your hand, especially in striking your
fish and in retrieving your line after a cast. And when the reel is above
the hand, in reeling in a fish the position is necessarily awkward and
ungrateful, and the rod, unless you run the butt into your stomach and
place your left hand above the reel, will shake, wiggle and sway like a
“sawyer” in the Mississippi. We find that a large majority of expert
anglers do not adopt that mode of fixing their reels.
Third: This method is objectionable for two reasons: First, the weight
of the reel on top and below the hand tends constantly to turn the rod
over and the reel under, and the handle on the wrong side without a
constant and tiresome grip of the fingers. Secondly, when the line is wet
and lays flat along the top of the rod, there is manifold more friction in
rendering or reeling up than there is when the line hangs in rings several
inches apart underneath.
Again, you can pull out slack for a new and longer cast much handier
when the line hangs below the rod than when it lays flat upon the rod, as
it generally will when wet.
Fourth: In the use of all rods for fly-casting, this method of placing
the reel below the hand and underneath the rod is recommended and
practiced by a large majority of anglers.
Holding the rod thus in your hand, either when the line is out,
floating over a riffle, or as you walk along reeled up, it seems to
balance nicely, and gives you no muscular effort to hold it. Your fingers
readily grasp the line when you desire to strike a big fish solid, and no
miss a strike by an easy springing reel and a slack line. You can temper
the strain on the pole by letting the line slip through your hand. The
line always hangs lightly in the rings, wet or dry; renders and reels up
freely; and when reeling up with the butt to your big fish, the reel seems
to hand just in the right place and exactly where you want it.
There may be objections to this mode of placing the reel, but there is
one old angler, at least, who has been over fifty years trying to find
them. Should other be more successful, let them hasten to revel their
discoveries in The Angler.
D. W. C. - The American Angler, March 24, 1883
