CHAP. vi. Manner of Casting. 101 



you may again invite speculators to take shares. Many a goodly trout, 

 like his betters, has been taken out of inaccessible retirement by such 

 tactics. There is a peculiar charm in being even with the wary one 

 that has baffled you and every one else up to date. The basket is the 

 proper place for him, you always had an idea it was, and in he slides 

 most satisfactorily. 



There now, I have been very heavy and very long-winded on this 

 subject; but if I have converted you, I know you will not quarrel with 

 me in the end, whatever the non-fisherman reader may do. A fuller 

 basket will make a friend of you. 



In Chapters II. and V. I have said that I prefer to spin with a 

 pliable fly rod with a fly top, just such as I would use for fly-fishing for 

 salmon ; so I suppose I ought to say just two words on how to use such 

 a rod for spinning, for there are good pike fishermen who are accustomed 

 to trolling for pike with a stiff rod, but whose manner of casting the bait 

 would soon break a fly rod. According to the old style, and unless you 

 use a Nottingham reel, or its equivalent (for which see Reels or Winches), 

 with a stiff rod the line is gathered in near the reel by the hand after 

 every throw, and spread at one's feet, till the length between the bait 

 and the point of the rod is less than the length of the rod ; then the 

 bait, which must be heavy, is swung out with some force, and the force 

 and the weight of the bait carries all the line out through the rings. 

 The force necessary for such casting would very soon break a fly top. 

 My way is therefore different. I never gather in any line with the 

 hand. I reel it up if need be for change of ground. But ordinarily 

 I do not change the length of line which I have out. I swing the bait 

 like a pendulum, and when it is at the end of the swing back a 

 very little lift, if well timed^ that is, if made exactly at the end of 

 the swing back, will send the bait out to the full length of the line. I 

 ordinarily have about as much line out as a length and a half of the rod. 

 It is better to begin with less, and you will soon find that you can cast 

 in this way with a line about twice the length of the rod. Say the rod 

 is 1 6 feet, and the line out 32 feet, then if you cast this amount of line 

 straight out, and drop the point of the rod so as to have it pretty 

 straight in the direction of the cast, you will find that you have dropped 

 your bait 32 + 16 = 48 feet away from you. A cast in this fashion of 

 45 to 50 feet may not be as much as can be managed with a stiff 

 rod and the ordinary way of throwing a heavy bait, but it is enough 



