1. Tackle

The Spinning and the Revolving Reel

Just dig into your wife's sewing basket for a spool of thread and you'll be able to see in quicker than it takes to tell exactly how the free spool and the fixed spool differ. (See Fig. 1)

Okay, you've got the thread in your hand. Now dig out a crocheting needle and poke it through the hole in the spool. If your wife isn't the crocheting type try something else, maybe a lollipop stick.

Now hold each end of the needle so that the spool is parallel to your body and the loose end of thread can be pulled away from you. What you've got now, in effect, is the free spool, revolving reel, multiplying reel, conventional reel —call it what you will.

The loose end is where you'd tie on your hook and sinker. Now start pulling that loose end away from you, keeping the spool parallel to your body. What happens? The spool turns.

Now suddenly stop pulling on the loose end.

What happens? The line has stopped feeding out but mo­mentum has built up and the spool keeps on turning.

Result? The loose thread starts building up loosely on the spool. The action is what we call a backlash. The resultant buildup of thread is what a fisherman calls a bird's nest.

Now discard the crocheting needle or lollipop stick and hold just one end of the spool so that it is at a right angle to your body. Now the end of the spool is facing the same direction as you. What you've got now is the fixed spool, the stationary spool, the spinning reel—any name means thesame.

Once again now, pull the loose end of thread away from you. Remember, the spool is perpendicular to your body.

What happens? The thread peels off the end of the spool in loops. But the spool does not move.

Now suddenly stop pulling on the loose end, just as before.

What happens now? Nothing. The line stops but the spool never started so there can be no momentum to keep it turning.

Result? No backlash. No bird's nest. No tangles that need to be untangled. All you have to do now is catch that fish!

The Reel for You

You're going to get a spinning reel, one for you and one for Andy, and that's what you'll be using when you set forth on that first saltwater fishing expedition loaded down with sandwiches for you and candy bars for Andy and filled up with high hopes.

But, before you can go anywhere, you have to know what kind of a reel you're going to get and where you're going to fish. In fact you've got to know where you're going before you get the reel. Otherwise you're going to spend a lot of money on reels—and rods—and wish later you hadn't.

What you're looking for are reels that are going to last each of you a lifetime, answering all your fishing needs . . . recognizing, of course, that you can't kill elephants with air rifles.

So far all you know is that you're going to go saltwater fishing, which can be at a lot of places. It might be wading in the surf, ballet dancing atop a seaweed-slippery jetty—a stunt that isn't recommended until you've got some fish scalps to hang on your belt and Andy is a few years older—rubbing elbows with other fisherfolk on pier or bridge, casting from the banks of a tidal estuary, seated in a rowboat bouncing your bait off a bay bottom (but for safety's sake you should have an outboard motor instead of pitting a pair of oars and your arms against strong tides and currents), trolling offshore in a small, seaworthy boat or hugging the rail of a party boat

No matter which one you choose, it's all saltwater fishing. If you know where your next Cadillac is coming from and if you like beavertails you could get a different outfit for each kind of fishing expedition.

Why, you even could be excused for having a different getup for the same fish. Let's take striped bass as an example. Not what the experts call lunkers, as in "My, what a big lunk of fish!" but two- to ten-pound stripers that run in schools in sheltered inlets and salt-marsh estuaries.

You work him from a rowboat (you don't need an out­board) and you can have sport that you'll remember for a year by playing him and landing him on light line, light reel and light rod.

But today you're going after the same school of two- to ten-pounders in the surf. The breakers are crashing. The undertow lets you know it's there. That means you'll need a heavy sinker—with a spinning outfit three ounces is heavy— to hold your bait on the bottom. And to cast heavy sinkers, especially under these surf conditions, you'll need a heavier and more powerful rod, heavier line and more line, and therefore a bigger reel.

What you have to find, therefore, is the one all-purpose reel that you can use for any or all kinds of saltwater fishing —surfcasting, still fishing, trolling, bottom fishing.

While you're at it, though Andy and his mother and his sister might be able to use your reel too, you might as well find another reel for them. After all, you're a family man and fishing can be real fun when it's a family affair.

For the man in the family we suggest an intermediate all-purpose reel, one that is neither too big nor too small. For Andy we suggest one that is a trifle smaller but still powerful enough to bring home just about any fish either you or Andy or sister Peg will ever hook into. That would be a medium reel.

There are any number of reputable manufacturers who make just the all-purpose reel you want and need. Go into any well-stocked tackle shop and you can see good reels and bad reels. Each one has its purpose, but is its purpose also your purpose?

If you listen to a salesman, how are you going to know if he's steering you to what you want and should have or whether he's giving you something they've got a backroom full of because the buyer ran into a good deal?

There are many things that you should look for in a reel if you want it to serve a lifetime. And the best place to look first is right down on the beach where the men and boys are fishing.

Look for the fellows with the most fish. They're the fellows most likely to have the right equipment. What kind of reels are they using? Don't be shy about asking questions. Most fishermen are an affable lot, if you don't try to strike up a conversation while they're playing a fish. They'll give you more first-hand, visual advice in five minutes than most books can give you in five days. Line capacity? Corrosion resistance? Gear ratio? Friction drag? Anti-reverse lever? Friend fisher­man will demonstrate as he answers.

When you've gotten two or three, perhaps four, names of good spinning reels—and demonstrations—from the friendly fishermen, write to the manufacturers or distributors for their catalogues. Ask them the same questions you asked down on the beach. The speed with which they answer will help you determine how fast the service will be whenever you send the reels back for overhaul.

Now for the answers you're looking for:

Anti-Reverse Lever. This is a catch that keeps the handle from turning backward. It has an "on" position and an "off" position and it is meant to help play a fish. At a time like that you don't want any distractions and an anti-reverse lever can be a disastrous distraction if it is inconveniently located. Make sure the anti-reverse lever on the reel you buy is so placed that you can snap the lever on or off with one finger without having to take one of your busily occupied hands off the reel handle or off the rod.

Corrosion Resistance. No reel is corrosion-proof. But a good reel should be made to minimize the possibility of corrosion through use of modern materials and with proper care, of course. Salt air and spray are tough and the corrosion-resist­ant materials should be tougher.

Friction Drag. This is a braking mechanism to control the tension on the line; its only use is in fighting a fish. That use has to be smooth, slow, even and effortless. If the adjustment is too tight and the line won't give when the fish runs, the line will break. If the drag is too loose, the fish will run away with the line. If it adjusts from tight to loose too quickly you have no margin for fine drag setting. You'll often change spools when fishing and, since the drag should be built onto the spool, you want the most simple-to-use drag mechanism you can get. That means just one operation with no parts to be handled and perhaps lost; if you have to take the drag apart, thus risking the loss of parts or the sanding up of parts, that's the wrong reel to buy.

Gear Ratio. In other words, how many times will the rotat­ing head turn for every complete revolution of the handle. The answer should be between three-to-one to four-to-one; but, more important, how many inches of line will each turn of the handle retrieve? The medium reel should pick up about twenty-two inches of line every time you crank the handle. The intermediate reel should bring home about twenty-eight inches of line for every turn of the handle.

Line Capacity. Andy's medium reel should take two hundred yards of ten-pound test monofilament line. Your intermediate should take three hundred yards of fifteen-pound test line.

Sand Penetration. You can't prevent it from happening to a certain extent. But the manufacturer can stop it from ever happening to the vital parts, such as the drive gear and its components, by housing them in a sand-tight and water-tight section of the reel. As for the parts that do their work outside the housing unit, a well-engineered, well-made reel will min­imize the possibility of sand penetration. The care and clean­ing you give them should do the rest.

There are two other factors about a spinning reel that offer you choices no book and no fisherman can advise you about. The decisions should be based purely upon your own personal preferences. One is the choice between an automatic or a manual line-retrieving device, and the other is the choice be­tween a right-handed or a left-handed reel.

The name for the line-retrieving mechanism is "bail." All spinning reels come with an automatic bail. All it takes to pick up and place your line in position for retrieving after the cast is a turn of the handle. Some of the automatics have a finger bail but most have a full bail, meaning a full pickup hoop that practically eliminates the possibility of foul-ups. The finger bail is just that, a partial hoop that juts out of the rotating head like a bent finger. Because it doesn't completely span the rotating head, it sometimes misses the line on pickup and a foul-up can occur. The full bail is the best of the automatics.

There are fishermen who feel an automatic bail constitutes an extra part that may get out of order and so reel manufac­turers offer the option of a manual pickup. There might be a slight extra charge of a dollar or two. The manual device works simply and well and there are any number of experts who swear by it. We, personally, tried both and we happen to prefer the automatic pickup. The manual and the automatic are easily interchangeable if you want to try both.

As for left-handed or right-handed reels, it seems to us that this is the most mean-nothing choice there is. And we speak as a lifetime southpaw who uses what the trade calls a right-handed reel. But, since there is a choice, you may just as well face the fact that you'll have to make it.

Remember this in making that choice—fishing is a two-handed sport, more so than baseball or any other. If you reel with the left, you cast from the right; if you reel with the right, you cast from the left. And either one comes just as naturally as wearing a baseball glove on one hand and throw­ing with the other.

What the manufacturer calls a right-handed reel is one that forces you to cast from the right side, which is a compara­tively small part of fishing, and then do all your cranking of the handle, which is a major part of fishing, with the left hand. For this southpaw no arrangement could be nicer.

Yet no natural right-hander finds any fault with that arrange­ment, which tends to prove that the choice is primarily a state of mind. A lefthander will be proficient with a "right-handed" reel after five minutes of use; a right-hander will be proficient with a "left-handed" reel after five minutes of use.

The medium reel should be made to handle two- to twelve-pound test line and ought to come with two spools. It's best that you forget about any line that's smaller than six-pound test. Then you'll have a reel that's good for light saltwater fishing. That's your bay, your inlet, your tidal stream or estuary. If the sea isn't rough and the breakers aren't crash­ing high, it also is your surf.

The intermediate reel is a step above the medium in rug-gedness and line capacity. A saltwater fish is big enough and strong enough to run and run when he gets a hook sunk in his mouth and you need the extra line to let him. The inter­mediate reel ought to take from eight- to twenty-pound test line. If it doesn't come with a spare spool invest a couple of dollars in an extra.

With either of these two reels—the medium or the interme­diate—and with the rods that are made to go with them, you and the whole family can fish for and land anything from a postage-stamp size flounder to a giant snook, striper or tarpon.

The record snook caught on spinning tackle with line that tested no heavier than twelve pounds weighed thirty pounds, nine ounces. The record striper took up sixty-one pounds, ten ounces of space in the freezer, and the tarpon tipped the scales at an even ninety-one pounds. As for the postage-stamp flounder, please throw him back and try him on again for size next year.

Now you've got the reels. All you need are the rods and the line and, naturally, the hooks.

The Rod

The more you move around fishing circles the more you'll hear about something the professionals call balanced or matched tackle. This means nothing more than fitting a reel to a rod and the rod and the reel to line that are meant for each other. You can walk into any reputable tackle shop, plunk down your money and go home with a rod that will do very nicely. But will it do as nicely as it should? You probably won't know until you've fished for several years and become an old hand at the sport.

But you've already got those company catalogues in front of you, all of them replete with colored pictures not only of reels but rods as well. Most tackle companies have several rods made to go with each of its reels. Which rod you want is dependent on the kind of fishing you are going to do.

Flip the pages until you come to the rods that are made for the reels you've chosen. That way you'll be steered to a rod that's mated to your reel in order to insure better handling, better action, better casting, better retrieving . . . better fish­ing. The catalogue will tell you what kind of rod you want. Then you'll be ready to go the tackle shop and examine that rod and comparable ones made by one of the many companies that make excellent rods but don't make reels.

A word of caution: don't let yourself be touted onto some offbeat brand. Stick to the reputable makers and pay heed to their suggestions. Remember you're a beginner and its next to impossible to buy your first fishing rod on your own.

Here are some of the things to look for:

Ferrule. The joint where the tapering end of the rod meets with the butt end. One part of this joint should fit snugly and firmly into the other. It should call for a little bit of muscle— a little, not a lot—to take them apart. There should even be an audible pop as the nearly airtight fit is broken.

Handle. Hardwood is good material for a handle but the best and most comfortable is made of cork, good cork. "Specie" cork is the best. The less costly cork is "mustard." The kind of cork and the price of the rod can be a key to the craftsmanship that's gone into the rest of the rod. Mustard cork and high price? Maybe the manufacturer isn't as reput­able as he ought to be. The specie grain runs parallel to the rod, the mustard grain is perpendicular. A lot of holes in the cork indicates mustard, fewer holes mean specie cork. Are they round and deep? It's mustard. Are the holes oval and shallow? It's specie.

Material. The tackle industry has tried, tested and experi­mented with every possible kind of material to find the one best suited for spin fishing in salt water. The unanimous find­ing was hollow glass. Split bamboo is expensive and is subject to breaks, bends and wear. Solid glass is stiff, less helpful in casting and weaker than hollow glass because it will break before it will give. Hollow glass needs no protective coating against the elements. It won't soak up water and develop the bends if left standing in the cellar. It is Umber and every inch of the rod works for you when casting. A hollow glass rod can last a lifetime.

Reel Seat. The reel seat can consist of sliding rings or the entire seat can slide. Still a third device, the best for attaching the spinning reel to the rod so it will stay firmly in place, is the fixed reel seat. A screw-locking mechanism provides the anchor that keeps the reel where it belongs while you're bring­ing home a fish. The seat will be in your hand every second of the time you hold the rod; make sure it's properly rounded for comfort. Make sure the seat fits your reel before you buy.

Tiptop and Guides. Tiptop and guides are the rings through which the line passes. The one on the very end is called the tiptop. The largest ring, the one closest to the handle, is called the gathering guide because it gathers the loops of line as they uncoil from the reel and reduces their size before passing them on to the succeeding guides. The tiptop and gathering guide take the greatest beating, therefore they should be made of the toughest, most non-corrosive material possible. Good materials are stainless steel, tungsten carbide, agate and quartz. The last two are more subject to breakage, however.

So much for parts of the rod. Now about the action? That word "action" means different things to different men. It's best that you confine your vocabulary to "stiff" or "limber." A limber rod is more flexible, its tip moves faster with less effort. Speed of tip movement puts whip in the rod and the better the whip the better the cast.

Fortunately for the beginner, the limber rod is easier to control and therefore to master. Timing isn't as important and you aren't made to pay the price of your mistakes.

Now let's get back to fitting Andy's medium reel to a rod —a limber rod. The rod for Andy's reel should be meant to handle six- to twelve-pound test line best. It ought to have what the catalogues call "medium light action" and it ought to be about seven or seven and a half feet long. That is long enough for a not-too-turbulent surf, long enough to clear the rocks or any jetties you'll let Andy climb on, not too long for pier or bridge fishing, and not unwieldy for the comparatively confined space of rowboat, outboard motorboat or party boat.

Now that Andy is taken care of in the rod and reel depart­ment we get back to you, Dad. You're going to be a one-rod saltwater fisherman, equally well equipped whether you are doing a day of casting, trolling or bottom fishing. So check the catalogue until you find a boat and jetty spinning rod that was created especially for the one-rod saltwater fisherman. That's the kind to look at in the tackle shop. It will handle twelve- to twenty-five-pound line, it will be seven and a half or eight feet long and it will have a medium action.

Andy's medium reel will work quite nicely on your rod, too, Dad, so you can use the two interchangeably if you like. As Andy grows up he can also grow into your outfit and, if you feel like spending more money, you can graduate to a heavy surf reel and rod to match. There'll be no waste be­cause you'll always be able to use Andy's medium outfit, and besides his rod and reel always will be just about the perfect match for Mother and sister Peg.

By the way, if you want to try your hand at freshwater fish­ing someday, that medium rod and medium reel ought to constitute a pretty near perfect outfit.

One final word of advice about selecting rods and reels. Try to make your choice from companies that can and do pro­vide fast service. Tackle, properly taken care of, will last you a lifetime and that means it has to have factory servicing once in awhile. Choose a company that's as proud of its serv­ice department as it is of its product

Okay, Dad, you're in the tackle shop and now you're ready to go right over to the ribbon counter or, rather, the line de­partment.

The Line

The evolution of fishing line is just as fascinating a subject as the development of the sport of fishing itself. We could gp back to the cavemen and trace the evolution from jungle vine and grass all the way to the development of the modern monofilament line that is far and away the favorite of spin fishermen today—the favorite because it is best for spin fishing.

Monofilament line was developed along with the advance­ment of spinning reels to overcome the disadvantages of then-available lines; lines such as linen that are still available and in use—particularly in big game fishing—but not by spin fishermen.

The chief disadvantage of linen is that it is a fibrous, or­ganic material and therefore subject to chemical reaction and deterioration.

Then came the synthetics: inorganic materials such as nylon and dacron. But the line consisted of several strands machine-woven into what we call braided line. Excellent, but not best for casting with a spinning outfit because it is limp and a spin­ning line should have a controlled amount of stiffness to pre­vent it from jumping off the spool.

Then along came monofilament—"mono" as in one and "filament" as in a fine slender thread. It proved the best of all. It has less wind resistance than braid and so it casts better. It has less water resistance and so it slides to the bottom more easily. It is translucent and practically invisible to a fish.

Monofilament is made of nylon, which is inorganic and therefore not subject to chemical deterioration. It has elastic­ity, which is a disadvantage if you have to let out a lot of line, while trolling, for instance. But in the comparatively small amount of line you and Andy will need, elasticity will add to the test strength of your line because when a fish grabs the bait and starts to run, the line has to stretch before it can break. And you will learn how to use the rod and reel in such a way as to prevent the line from reaching the breaking point.

The advantage of braided line shows up when you're troll­ing or casting line with greater than fifteen-pound test. Mono can twist badly at high trolling speeds. Braided, when it twists, isn't as troublesome. As for casting, you'll have no need for anything heavier than fifteen-pound line now; when or if you ever do, you can offset the disadvantage by using a heavier lure.

If the need ever arises for a braided line, meet it by acquir­ing a spare spool that you can easily interchange. But, gen­erally, stick to mono and you'll catch more fish.

When you're shopping for line, don't let the salesman tout you onto some off-brand or some no-brand-at-all mono just because it is cheaper. It might be good enough for porgy fish­ing but is it also good enough for bone fishing? Stick to the name brands.

Remember you're going to have two interchangeable spools for each reel. That's so you can have a different test line on each. Your medium reel probably comes with two spools.

One spool is small capacity. Fill it up with six-pound test line. It will take about 125 yards of it. That's enough for fluke, sea bass and most any so-called small fish you can mention. The other spool is large capacity. Load it with 200 yards of ten-pound test monofilament line.

The intermediate reel should handle any line from eight- to twenty-pound test. You'll want two spools. Load one up with about 300 yards of twelve-pound line. Load the other spool with 250 yards of fifteen-pound line. Load each of them to about one-sixteenth of an inch from the lip for maximum per­formance.

We said "load the spool" as though we meant you to take the empty spools home and then personally wind the line onto them. But you don't have to. Just ask the ribbon counterman to wrap all that line on the reels. It should be very easy; he should have a machine to do it for him. If he hasn't, maybe you're in the wrong tackle shop. Not too far away there's bound to be a better one.

After all, according to the count of the Department of the Interior in 1960, there were 6,292,000 saltwater fishermen in the United States, and the ranks are swelling by eight percent a year. These six million kindred souls spent an average of $100 each on their sport—a whopping total of $626,191,000 —and it takes a lot of tackle shops, good tackle shops, to serve them and rake in that kind of loot.

However, in case you want to spool your line yourself, there is a simple way of doing it.

1. Tie a slip knot in the end of the line and slide it over the arbor of your reel spool.
   
   
2. Open your bail to casting position and put the spool back on the reel.
   
   
3. Turn the reel handle and let the bail pick up the line and wind several turns on the spool.
   
   
4. Have someone hold the spool as shown in figure 2 with one hand and apply tension to the line as it peels off with his other hand.
   
   
5. Crank the reel handle until the line is about one-sixtenths of an inch from the lip of the reel spool.

If a twist should develop in your line after you've fished it for awhile, you can get rid of it easily if you're in a boat that's moving through tidal water or ocean currents. All you have to do is let the line trail out over the stern until your spool is bare except for the slipknot loop. Then reel in until all your line is retrieved. The water action will straighten it out.

Incidentally, many top reel manufacturers have pre-wound spools available in any test line you desire. Those spools cost more but you'll be sure of getting what you want, just exactly the way you should have it—no kinks, no twists, not too loose, not too tight.

You should label each spool so you'll know what test line is on it, when you put the line there and how many yards of line there are. Devise any simple code, type it on a small slip of paper and tape it to the back of the spool. That way you'll always know.

In saltwater fishing, particularly surfcasting, the last ten to fifteen feet or so of line take the greatest beating. That end, the end with the lure and hook on it, whips most vigorously through the guides while casting, gets dragged across the bottom while retrieving, gets scraped against rocks, coral and barnacles and anything else available to a fish trying to break free. So those last few feet of line should be lots tougher than the rest of the line on your spool. Use a ten-pound test leader or shocker on Andy's six-pound spool; fifteen pounds on the ten; twenty-five pounds on your twelve, and a thirty-pound test shocker on your fifteen-pound test line.

Monofilament leader material is available, packed in lengths of from fifteen to twenty-five yards or so. Purchase a pack, cut off enough to pass through the rod guides, make a few wraps around the spool—ten to fifteen feet—and tie it onto the end of your fishing line. Use a blood (barrel) knot or a shocker knot and it will hold perfectly. You'll learn how to tie those knots in Chapter 2.

Some fish—barracuda and bluefish, for example—are so sharp-toothed they will bite right through the toughest mono-filament line. Other fish have knife-like fins or gill covers. For fish like that you'll need a wire leader. They're available in lengths from six inches up to several feet and they're all rigged up and ready to go. The average size of the sharp tooth you're going after will help you determine what length wire leader you'll need. All you have to do is loop your line through the swivel.

If you want a wire leader longer than the factory-made ones, for trolling or big-game fishing for instance, you can make your own very easily. Every good tackle shop sells wire leader material, and also carries crimping pliers and small copper or brass slip-on sleeves for the do-it-yourselfer..

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