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Show HBy JIM RHODYgj jv Cane Polers Adept After a recent demonstration, this writer is convinced that there must be scores of cane pole bait-fishermen bait-fishermen over the nation who could give the expert tournament casters some real competition. Everyone knows that the tournament tourna-ment competitors, equipped with 5 Mi or 6-foot rods, lightning fast, diminutive tournament reels, with no level-wind attachment, are able to hurl a one-half or three-eights ounce tournament weight the length of a football field, or farther. Light lines also aid the caster in this performance. But how many know that there are some cane pole fishermen who can east a minnow and small sinker sink-er that same, or greater, distance? But to the tyro, the ability to duplicate the cane polt angler's dexterity and adroitness is singularly sing-ularly difficult, and it is only after a long trial-and-error method that the beginner becomes proficient if he ever does. There is no almost-"alive" action of the rod tip here to aid in delivering deliver-ing the lure. In fact, few cane rods have enough flexibility to permit the lure to put an arc in the rod at any Btep of the casting procedure. Getting to the performance we witnessed,' we saw a cane pole fisherman, with a minnow and small sinker attached to his line, throw more than 100 yards of line off his reel and this from a sitting sit-ting position! He did it repeatedly and seemed to think there was nothing unusual in the feat. His line tested 15 pounds and his reel was a beaten up model, with level-wind level-wind attachment, which was then more than six years old and hadn't cost more than $8 when he bought it. The performance was one of which any top-flight caster could have been proud and was of a quality to attract as amazed spectators spec-tators several fly-rod users and plug casters who happened to be on the lake at the time. How It Started According to the legend, the story of how artificial lures caine to be Invented has an affinity af-finity with so many of the gadgets gad-gets that enhance the pleasures of fishing they were first envisioned en-visioned by a country boy. He was the driver of a six-mule six-mule team and was expert at handling the long bullwhip which he rarried over his shoulder. shoul-der. One afternoon, the mules stopped at a creek to drink and the boy noticed that trout were leaping hungrily a few yards away. He thought, "Gosh, one would taste good for supper!" He climbed off the wagon and began be-gan cracking his whip against the surface of the water. Suddenly, Sud-denly, a fine trout leaped and struck the red tip, or tassel, of the bullwhip. The boy landed that fish, then stood in his tracks and by the same method managed to catch a good mess. And that, they say, was the beginning of the rod and reel, flics and plugs. 'Stratoline' Does Job Without a lot of technical blather involving obtuse theory and theorizing, theor-izing, the Cortland line company has come up with a triple-taper fly line that seems to be what the doctor ordered in the matter of easy and effective fly casting. Their "Stratoline" is made in all the popular tapers, but in sensible dimensions and weight distributions which do the job a perfect fly line is supposed to do. Cortland has managed to put the "weight forward" principle of line construction in its proper perspective perspec-tive and, as a result, the "Stratoline" "Strato-line" almost "casts itself." We tested an HCF line on an 8-foot, 3-ounce Heddon rod, and were delighted with the results. The quick taper of the H-line to C, the length of C-line which tapers quickly to F, brought out the ultimate ulti-mate in rod action and ease of casting. Turtles Voracious Game Manager Harold A. SteinkS of the Wisconsin conservation department de-partment wonders how many trout go into the making of a snapping turtle. Steinke shot a snapper which had a 10 by 8-inch shell on the banks of Jenning's creek. He found the turtle's stomach contained three brook trout, six and one-half inches each and still in full color, plus one four-inch chub and two seven-inch lamprey eels. 4 |