10 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



long line. That coveted result is not to be attained by 

 mere muscle. If you have a giant's strength you 

 mustn't use it like a giant. If you do you will never 

 make a long or a graceful cast with either trout or 

 salmon rod. With both there must be only such 

 strength used as is necessary to give the line a quick 

 but not a snappy back movement — keeping up the 

 motion evenly until the fly is placed where you de- 

 sire it. 



The most difficult attainment, in both salmon and 

 trout casting, is to be able, with instinctive accuracy, to 

 measure the distance traversed by the backward move- 

 ment of your line. If you begin the return too soon 

 your line will snap and thereby endanger your fly ; if 

 you are too tardy it will droop and thereby lose the 

 continuity of tension indispensable to a graceful and 

 effective forward movement. This essential art can 

 only be attained by practice. Some attain it readily ; 

 others never ; — just as some measure time in music 

 with unerring accuracy, without a teacher ; some only 

 acquire the art after protracted drilling, and others 

 never acquire it at all. 



There is almost as perfect rhythm in fly-casting as in 

 music. Given a definite length of line and the expert 

 can measure his cast by his one, two, three, four, as ac- 

 curately as a teacher can regulate the time of his orches- 

 tra by the movement of his baton. While this is true 

 in casting with either rod it is most noticeable in casting 

 for salmon. The heavy line, the massive springy rod, 



