366 SALMON AND TROUT. 



without splash. The checking of the hand serves a twofold 

 purpose : firstly, causing the fly to land on the surface without 

 disturbance, and secondly, delivering it with plenty of slack line, 

 which, as shown later on, will prevent or retard its dragging. 



If it is necessary to make a very long cast, the hand when 

 travelling back must be raised above the level of the head, so 

 as to lift the line as high as possible behind. This is called the 

 steeple cast. It may be laid down as an axiom that the distance 

 an angler can cast is limited by the length of line he can keep 

 in the air behind, with the addition of a few yards he can slide 

 from the hand while delivering the fly ; hence the advantage of 

 steepling when trying to make an extra long throw. It is also 

 necessary to steeple when there is a bank or bushes imme- 

 diately behind the angler; even with very long grass it is often 

 useful. 



If the wind is dead in the face of the fisherman he must use 

 a somewhat shorter length of gut, and follow the previous in- 

 structions for casting, up to the point of delivering the fly ; but 

 when the arm attains the angle of 45 with the plane of the 

 water it must be well extended, the knuckles turned down, and 

 a cut made downwards and towards the body, the elbow being 

 at the same time raised and the rod-point carried down to the 

 level of the water. If accurately timed, this back motion acts 

 as a check, and the result is that the line is extended in the 

 teeth of the wind, the fly travelling out straight, and falling 

 lightly and without disturbance. This is called the downward 

 cut. 



For fishing against a very light wind, or across any breeze 

 short of half a gale, no style of casting is to be compared with 

 the underhanded or horizontal cast. As may be inferred from 

 its name, it is a cast made underhanded or with the rod held 

 in a horizontal position. The movements are precisely similar 

 to those of the overhanded cast, except that the rod is in a 

 horizontal instead of a vertical position, and the motion of it 

 is in a direction parallel to the surface of the water instead of 

 at right angles to it, as in the case of the overhanded cast 



