42 THE SALMON 



moment the fly has reached its furthest limit behind, 

 neither delaying nor hurrying the motion. But if there 

 are rocks or overhanging boughs behind you, and you 

 have not acquired the ' Spey cast,' another method 

 of overcoming the difficulty is to stand facing directly 

 down-stream, throw the line straight back over the 

 shoulder nearest the water, looking round as you do 

 so to see that your fly keeps over the stream and does 

 not go back as far as the threatening boughs or rock, 

 and then with a direct and strong sweep toward the 

 opposite side you may succeed in throwing a fairly 

 long and straight line across the stream and a little 

 down it. This used to be called on the Tay the 

 ' cradle ' cast, from a pool not far from Stanley, which 

 could only be properly fished from the bank by this 

 method. There was a long, deep, submerged shelf of 

 rock some twenty or twenty-five yards from the side, 

 and the overhanging trees made it impossible to bring 

 your line behind you. I remember a day — I am 

 afraid to say how many years ago— when I got three 

 fish out of that hundred yards of water, each weighing 

 between eighteen and nineteen pounds. What es- 

 pecially fixes the incident in my memory is that I 

 hooked the first fish almost immediately — that he was 

 a singularly sulky customer, dived deep and hugged 

 the rock, never at any time running more than ten or 



