ON ANGLING. 87 



rod point a pellet of moist clay and that your purpose is to 

 flick this pellet off as far as possible. 



The idea is good : it conveys the right suggestion. 

 The pace of the flick that will accomplish this best must 

 depend on the flexibility of the rod, but this flexibility in its 

 various degree you will soon grow to recognise as your hand 

 becomes familiar with different rods. For the moment 

 you have this rod of your friend's in hand. You give, after 

 the lift, and without pause — rather as a quick acceleration 

 of the lifting movement — the flick back and up, as suggested, 

 and then you must arrest the movement. You must arrest 

 it sharply. Remember the tenseness of the forearm 

 muscles all the while ; you must not relax this tenseness 

 nor allow the wrist to bend nor the hand to lean back over the 

 shoulder. Any weakening of that kind would be fatal to the 

 cast. It has been suggested — all these suggestions are most 

 useful as mediums between the adviser and the advisee to 

 enable the advice to be understood, and also to the fisher 

 in the actual practice of his craft by way of reminder of 

 points in which he is apt to fall away from perfection — ■ 

 the suggestion, I say, has been made that the check in 

 the movement of the arm should be just such as a 

 smart groom makes when he brings the fingers up to touch 

 the cap. Again, it is a good and helpful simile. 



So there you are, you now have the line in the air above 

 and behind you. I hope you will have brought your forearm 

 straightly and vertically up, with no weak wavering, for 

 this is rather essential if the line is ultimately to be projected 

 straight in front of you again. The line is away up and 

 behind you. How long are you to let it be so in the heavens ? 

 When is the forward movement to begin ? This is, perhaps, 

 the most important question in the whole business. Its 

 answer is the solution of, perhaps, the most difficult problem 

 involved. I am sorry that it is an answer which I find it 

 also most difficult to put into words understandable by 

 anyone to whom the " feel " of the rod is a new sensation. 

 It is most difficult ; but I must make the attempt. 



In the first place, I would ask you to dismiss from your 

 mind all that you may have heard said by them of old time 

 about the necessity, the desirability, or even the mere 



