88 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



possibility of allowing the line to go straight out behind you 

 before beginning to urge it forward again. That pleasant illu- 

 sion about the throw has been dispelled, we may hope, for all 

 time, by the diligence and the instantaneous photographs 

 of the late Mr. Halford. The line does not go out anything 

 like straight behind the angler's back ; it begins to be returned 

 for the forward cast long before it gets to that position. 

 I presume that if the angler did wait for it so to straighten 

 itself behind, a portion of it would inevitably "go to grass," 

 and therewith all hope of success for that particular throw 

 would fall to the ground also. 



Nevertheless, it is probably true that the besetting sin 

 of most anglers is to begin the forward movement too soon, 

 not to give long enough pause at the top — to be in too great a 

 hurry. 



Remember this : you have made a cast back ; you have 

 to make a cast forward. In order to make this forward 

 cast you have to begin it at the moment when the line has 

 gone so far back as to give the greatest possible value to the 

 spring of the rod, which, as we have seen, is to be the efficient 

 cause of all its movement. That precise moment you will 

 begin, after a little practice, to recognise for yourself. It 

 is the moment when the forward movement which you are 

 now to give to the rod communicates to your hand the sense 

 that there is something of weight up there in the air behind 

 and above you which you have to flick forward — like a moist 

 clay pellet. The effectiveness of the forward flick depends 

 a great deal on the choice of the right instant for its beginning. 

 If too soon, the line has not gone far enough back and there 

 is a bit of slack before the spring of the rod takes hold of it. 

 If too late, there is exactly the same waste of slack line. But 

 if the movement be precisely timed, then the spring of the 

 rod begins active work on the line the moment it is set going 

 forward. All the line is " live," none is dead or slack. 



Now, if you have accomplished this with any success, 

 and it is a success you are not at all likely to achieve until 

 after very, very many failures, you have then passed the 

 most difficult corner ; the crux of the business Lies behind 

 you. Think of the flick as having for its object the projection 

 of the moist clay pellet from the rod's top. Think of this 



