The two stroke cast

       Henry de France, who witnessed this period of revolution in fishing methods, wrote in ‘Le Pêcheur’ (The Angler) in April 1907 :

“Mr Ch. Quincy, the well known author of many authoritative dissertations and essays on Fishing, does us the honour, in an article that has just been published in the ‘Courrier de Saône-et-Loire’ in attributing us the merit of systematically applying casting to nearly if not all methods of fishing.

 To be honest, our ‘merit’ is not so great, as all we did was collate and package the great work of our peers.” 

The method of casting is older that we actually think. As far back as in 1810, Mr James A. Heushall, one of the most eminent authors in the United States, spoke of an angler from Kentucky by the name of Georges Snyder, who built the first multiplying reel. Rapidly, the use of short casting rods became obsolete in America.

  This method was studied and perfected by Mr Heushall, and to the best of our knowledge the first mention of this in French was in Mr Emile Gens ‘Carnet du Pêcheur’ (Fisherman’s Notebook), in 1893.

    Bouglé created a furore by publishing an article on this very subject on 1^st April 1902.

            On the other hand english writers had previously recommended a direct spinning of the single reel. The Nottingham and its by-products (some of them very advanced) have been wellknown for a long time. Yet they only have been used on long 2-hands-rods till very recently.

            Meanwhile M. Malloch invented a reel (which has his name), the axle of which is parallel to the rod.

            Last year Mr. Ilingworth created on the same model a very sensitive engine. Yet both were very expensive.

            At last MM. Hardy recently created an ordinary spinning reel for a one-hand-rod.

            The numerous articles dedicated to these various inventions showed their applications. Thus we noticed that nearly every angling could include a reel spinning and then gain this really sporting feature that was till now reserved to fly fishing.

            During a long time we have solely been supporters of the step up engine of the short one-hand-rod. But experience proved us that the step up engine couldn’t solve every spinning problem and that the rods (should they be easy to handle with one hand) shouldn’t be too short.

            Then we were forced to look for reels with their axle in the same plane as the rod. Those seem to have a great future. Thanks to them can not only every fishing be sporting but what is very important, their making is very cheap and allows every one to practice sport fishing.