Reel

“ But away he goes again, taking out perhaps every foot of line on the reel, and again you reel up, working him hard. Slowly and by degrees his leaps become shorter and fainter, you work him nearer and nearer the boat till he lies exhausted on his side, but with one wary eye on the gaff, ready to slew round and make another dash for life and liberty. But you hold him tight. One skilful blow with the gaff, and another gallant fish has met his fate. ”

“ The lark in wild glee races the reel round, paying or dealing out and down the turns of the skein or coil right to the earth floor, the ground, where it lies in a heap, as it were, or rather is all wound off on to another winch, reel, bobbin or spool in Fancy's eye, by the moment the bird touches earth and so is ready for a fresh unwinding at the next flight. Crisp means almost crisped, namely with notes.' ”

“ I have twice seen a salmon run off a reel.” And now, in fact, there was very little line left, when, after nearly half a mile of rush downstream, the fish turned and ran toward the boat.
“Lost? No! Nothing is ever lost—reel! reel!—except by people who ought to lose. No, reel! reel!” 240And poor Rose, at the limit of exhaustion, obeyed till her arm ached, and the perilously long loop of line at last became tense, and the fish showed himself in one great leap not forty feet away.
“He’s beat!” cried Michelle. “Easy, miss, easy. Have to gaff him, sir.” ”

“ Had any other man been in my place, I should have concluded that the fellow on the fly was not favorably impressed, as he started with celerity on another trip across the Grand. Being myself a man of benignant appearance, I concluded, of course, that he had become enamored of the sound of the reel and was delighted that I had taken a hand in the revelry. Humanity, however, has not the monopoly on making mistakes, and as the reel was evidently taking a turn—this time at a dead march—I towed the gentleman round and gently drew him out on the clean gravel. ”

“ For the reel is a high mystery—it is superior to all—it cannot be danced beyond the borders of Virginia—as the Seville orange of commerce loses its flavor, and is nothing. The reel ends all the festivities of the old Virginian gatherings, and crowns with its supreme merriment the pyramid of mirth. When it is danced properly,—to proper music, by the proper persons, and with proper ardor,—all the elements break loose. ”

“ Reel′-line, a fishing-line used on a reel by anglers, esp. the part reeled, as distinguished from that cast; Reel′-plate, the metal plate of a fishing-reel that fits into the reel-seat; Reel′-seat, the groove on an angler's rod which receives the reel.—Reel off, to give out with rapidity or fluency. [A.S. reól, hreól.] ”

“ I begin pulling at the line to bring up the reel, but the reel only lets the line out, and now he is off again, down stream this time, and I after him, and the line running out at both ends at once, and now my legs get entangled in it, it is twisted all round me. He runs again and jumps, the line comes back in my face, all slack, something has given. It is the hook, it was not knotted on firmly to start with. He flings himself out of the water once more to be sure that he is free, and I sit down and gnaw the reel. Had ever anybody such bad fortune, but it is just my luck! ”

“ Reel′-click, an attachment to an angler's reel, which checks the line from running out too freely; Reel′-cott′on, sewing cotton thread wound on reels or spools; Reel′er, one who reels: the grasshopper-warbler; Reel′-hold′er, a rotatory frame to hold spools or reels of thread used in sewing: one of the watch in a man-of-war who hauls in the line when the log is heaved to ascertain the ship's speed; Reel′ing-machine′, a machine for winding thread on spools or reels: a machine which winds into hanks the cotton yarn received from the bobbins of the spinning-frames ”

“ The dancers found their feet by an instinct as rapid, and a rattling reel shook the floor like thunder. Jean Carnie assumed the privilege of a bride, and seized his lordship; Christie, who had a mind to dance with him too, took Flucker captive, and these four were one reel! There were seven others.
The principle of reel dancing is articulation; the foot strikes the ground for every accented note (and, by the by, it is their weakness of accent which makes all English reel and hornpipe players such failures) . ”

“ But he does not see the ring; don’t deprive the poor Poll-parrot of the pleasure of hopping about on the perch of this earth till, when he has wound his life’s thread some sixty times about its reels, the reel gives a ring and a snap, the thread breaks, and all his fun is over and done!’ Oh! ”

“ A reel will be found very useful as an anvil when driving the nails through the bottom of the boat to hold the masts. The child should hold his piece of wood—through which he is driving a nail—in such a position that when the point comes through the wood, the nail makes its passage down the hole in the middle of the reel. As soon as the point has been driven through to a certain distance, the child can lift up his wood and examine—and if need be correct—the direction of the nail before fixing on the mast. ”

“ CHAPTER IV. THE WINCH LINE AND GUT.
Now, as to the reel. Notwithstanding that some of the books on fishing call the multiplying reel an abomination, I always prefer one; finding that when you hook a fish it is very desirable to have the means of winding in the slack line quickly should he come towards you. I have used a two-inch brass multiplier some years, and never, to my knowledge, lost a fish by its inaction. The revolving plate is a great improvement on the old windlass. ”

“ Chappell ('Popular Music,' p. 629) remarks that 'dancing a reel is but one of the ways of dancing the hay.... In the "Dancing Master" the hey is one of the figures of most frequent occurrence. In one country-dance "the women stand still, the men going the hey between them." This is evidently winding in and out. In another, two men and one woman dance the hey, like a reel. ”

“ Each reel must always advance; it never can go backward. In each succeeding reel of the Long Play we find that the story has just received a set-back in its solution, thru the introduction of a new and formidable obstacle that demands another line of solution from that employed in the preceding reel. ”

“ As there are persons so ignorant as not to know how to cast at all, and as I once found one stopping his reel with his first finger, I will say that to make a cast the line is reeled up till the float touches the tip, or in case no float is used, till the bait is within a foot of it, the right hand grasps the rod at the reel, which is turned up, and the thumb placed upon it to regulate the escape of the line ”

“ When you are casting for striped bass, the reel runs very easy, and the bait is heavy, and if you don’t check the reel with a thumb, as the line runs out, and then stop it as the bait drops on the sea, the reel runs on, and the line gets into a tangle, such as is really unimaginable. It takes hours to get it clear. ”

“ A rod as near ten feet long as may be, for trout fishing, weight from seven to eight ounces, never over ten, with the reel close to and under the butt; an easy running click-reel; a line of braided hair and silk, strong and weighty enough for a cast against the wind as well as with it; a clear, strong, looped leader for a quick change of flies ”

“ The tough wood will stand the strain. The fish must be moved; he must come to the boat if he is ever to be landed. He gives a little and yields slowly to the pressure. Then suddenly he gives too much, and runs straight toward us. Reel in now as swiftly as possible, or else he will get a slack on the line and escape. Now he stops, shakes his head from side to side, and darts away again across the pool, leaping high out of water. Don’t touch the reel! Drop the point of the rod quickly, for if he falls on the leader he will surely break it. ”

“ As the bit of white rag flashes over the rail the man with the reel begins to count the knots that slip past, the glass is set running, and when the last trickle of sand has sifted through, the man holding it shouts “stop her.” ”

“ When all were filled, the thread was wound off in knots and skeins on a reel. A machine called a clock-reel counted the exact number of strands in a knot, usually forty, and ticked when the requisite [175] number had been wound. Then the spinner would stop and tie the knot. A quaint old ballad has the refrain:—
"And he kissed Mistress Polly when the clock-reel ticked." ”

“ The fact that water will flow through a hose wound on a reel, if the diameter of the reel is large enough, and the curves or angles are not too abrupt, is a matter of common knowledge, which no one can appropriate to his own use to the exclusion of the public. ”

“ Of the two extremes, it is better to err on the side of lightness, because a heavy reel makes a butt-heavy rod and, throwing extra weight on the wrist and arm, makes casting increasingly difficult after an hour's fishing. ”

“ It is an exciting sport to take one of these large fellows on a line of two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet in length. They play beautifully when hooked, and it requires a good deal of coolness and skill to land them safely in your boat. A trolling rod for these large fish should be much stiffer, and stronger than those used for the fly, on the rivers and streams; and the reel should be stronger and higher geared than the common fly reel. ”

“ So far as the skillful management of a hooked fish is concerned, the multiplying reel is no better than the single-action click reel. For tarpon, tuna, and other very large fishes, where "pumping" is practiced on the hooked fish, the largest multiplying reel is of advantage in rapidly taking up the resultant slack line. ”

“ They are delicate. The wood is like woman—cross-grained, but invaluable, if carefully treated. The reel should be a simple click, never a multiplier, but large-barrelled, and fastened to the butt with a leather strap. ”

“ I thinks reel 'ard; an' then I lets it go.
⁠I tells 'er, out at Richmond, on me Run—
A little place uv ten square mile or so—
⁠I'm breedin' boomerangs; which is reel fun,
When I ain't troubled by the wild Jonops
⁠⁠⁠That eats me crops. ”

“ Praps them as most xcited my reel pitty was the LORD MARE'S six genelmen in their luvly new State liverries, and their bewtifool pink silk stockings a showing of their manly carves, all splashing along through the horful mud, and made crewel fun of by the damp and thortless crowd. The fust reel staggerer was the reel Firemen, about a thowsand on 'em, a marching along as bold as their brass Helmets. ”

“ When the person at the reel begins to turn, the first spinner, who has completed his yarn, holds it firmly at the end, and advances slowly up the walk, while the reel is turning, keeping it equally tight all the way, till he reaches the reel, where he waits till the second spinner takes his yarn off the whirl hook, and joins it to the end of that of the first spinner, in order that it may follow it on the reel. ”

“ The reel in brief is a large spool with flanges on both ends, a central axle fixed to the spool, a frame for supporting the axle, a guide for the string to prevent its running off the reel, and a brake to prevent too rapid unwinding when letting out the string. A reel can be made without a crank, by having the axle supported at one end only, and a knob handle fastened to the outer face of the reel for winding purposes. For further directions, see chapter on Reels.
Fig. 18. ↑
Tails. ”

“ To his great surprise, the line came in easily and he had recovered fully thirty feet when there was a sudden reversal of program on the part of the big fish, and the handle of the reel was jerked out of his hand with a suddenness which made him gasp. ”

“ With the first blossoms of spring the thoughts of many men, both old and young, turn lightly to love—the love of angling. And as the leaves unfold, and the birds begin their wooing, and the streams become clear, the premonitory symptoms of the affection are manifested in a rummaging of drawers and lockers for fly-books and tackle boxes, and the critical examination of rods and reels, and in the testing of lines and leaders. ”

“ Eyes tired with the glare of the water are grateful for the rest, and with the proverbial hope rising freely in the angler's bosom, you mentally reckon up the big captures you are going to make in the short time afforded by the evening rise. ”

“ The stage is eventually reached when you will never sling creel or bag to shoulder if another can be found to carry them; never gaff or net a fish unless obliged in your own interests to do so, or in rendering friendly help to a comrade; never bow your shoulders to a load which another will bear; and when, as a matter of course, you will hand over your rod for the keeper to carry as you pass from pool to pool. ”

“ The young sportsmen could not wait for supper. Hurriedly getting together their rods and reels, they soon had leaders and flies ready and were running down the slope after what bid fair to be rare sport with the great fish which they saw leaping. ”

“ And what delightful converse she holds with the fly-fisher, as with rod and creel he follows the banks of the meandering stream, or wades its pellucid waters, easting, ever and anon, the gossamer leader and feathery lure into shadowy nooks, below sunny rapids, over foam-flecked eddies, and on silent pools. She speaks to him through the rustling leaves, murmurs to him from the flowing stream, and sighs to him in the summer breeze. She is vocal in a myriad of voices, and manifest in innumerable ways. ”

“ There we wade the cold brooks, leafy branches bowing us a welcome as we pass, the water rippling over the hidden rocks, and telling us, in its wayward way, of the fine fish it carries in its bosom. With creel upon our shoulder and rod in hand, we reck not of the hours, and only when the sinking sun warns of the approaching darkness do we seek, with sharpened appetite, the hospitable country inn, and the comfortable supper that our prey will furnish forth. ”

“ IN the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth—so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small ‘Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale’s right ear, so as to be out of harm’s way. ”