n8 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



plans. On the other hand, if the wind is opposing the cast, 

 it tends to throw back the lightest part of the line, relatively 

 to the rest, which is precisely what you want. It almost 

 plays the game for you. To effect the throw in normal 

 conditions it needs that you deliver the forward flick — of 

 course, I am presuming that you are casting horizontally — 

 with rather less energy than usual. It should be energy 

 sufficient to make the spring of the rod take out the heavy part 

 of the line much as before, but just insufficient to impart 

 to this heavier portion such speed of movement as shall carry 

 out the lightest sections to a straight line beyond itself. 

 That is the mechanism of the cast — again, all a matter of 

 pace and of timing — I cannot teach you, by written words, 

 these times and paces ; the mechanics are all that I can 

 even hint to you. You must work out the rest for yourself 

 by patient practice and by intelligent attention to the 

 performance of your betters. 



So there ! You are now a finished fly-caster, as far as 

 I can help you to that noble conclusion. There are fantas- 

 tic casts, such as the " steeple cast," which chucks the line 

 as vertically up as possible behind the back, and is de- 

 signed to avoid catching in trees behind. I have seen it 

 executed as a tour de force, but have never seen it 

 combined with very deft and accurate placing of the 

 fly on the water. And it is the fly on the water with 

 which the trout concerns himself — you cannot remind 

 yourself too often of that obvious but much neglected 

 truth. He is no more likely to be caught by one than 

 by another diagram traced by your line cleaving the 

 air. When I come to say a few words to you about 

 salmon fishing — they really will be very few words indeed, 

 and as concerns the actual casting, hardly any, so enormously 

 more fine and subtle a matter is trout fishing than salmon 

 fishing, and so nearly do the lessons of the one hold good 

 for all the circumstances of the other — we will consider the 

 ' switch ' cast. But those circumstances are not nearly so 

 varied in salmon fishing as in trout fishing. Had these 

 been no more than hints to the commencing salmon fisher 

 that I was starting out to give you, they might have been 

 finished long ago. 



