FLY-FISHING. 269 



work, ninety feet can be cast with a rod of eleven 

 feet in length and twelve ounces in. weight. Indeed, 

 the evidence goes to prove that the certificate origi- 

 nally given to Mr. Seth Green, that he had covered a 

 hundred feet was correct, for he had a rod and line 

 especially prepared for casting a great distance and 

 not for ordinary fishing. 



The rods used at these tournaments are entirely 

 different from those carried by the angler when he 

 is fishing, they are made for the purpose, are top- 

 heavy, strong and stiff. The line is not permitted 

 to remain a minute on the water, but it is retrieved 

 as soon as cast, and is simply thrown forward and 

 backward in a manner which has to be practised 

 distinctly from ordinary trout-fishing. The success- 

 ful contestants have been in all instances of late 

 either tackle makers or their employees, who spend 

 their time developing the single art of distance cast- 

 ing as an advertisement of their business. A cast 

 of seventy feet in the ordinary manner, and with 

 the ordinary tools of trout-fishing, surpasses one of 

 ninety so obtained. Probably the less a man prac- 

 tices at this specialty as now understood, the better 

 he will fish in the stream and on the pond. 



A line can be cast farther without any fly attached 

 to it than with. The taper should be maintained 

 throughout from the hand to the stretcher, the gut 

 being selected from strands so arranged, that the 

 heaviest shall be at the upper end, and the flies dis- 

 posed on the same plan; that is, the tail one being 

 the smallest, the middle dropper the next in size 



