56 SALMON FISHING 



are using. Whether you have fifteen yards of line 

 out, or thirty, or any length between, it will serve 

 you pleasantly and with precision. 



This, of course, is said on the assumption that 

 you know how to handle a rod. The stance at golf 

 and the grip of the driver are hardly, if at all, mat- 

 ters more important. There is a certain similarity 

 between wielding the rod and wielding the club. 

 Once, at St. Andrews, I asked a scratch man, noted 

 for long shots off the tee, how he held the driver. 

 I had understood that good players gripped tightly 

 with the left hand and very lightly with the other. 

 " O," said my scratch man, " I think I hold pretty 

 tight with both."" Now, it is credible that a man 

 might hold a fishing-rod in that way and throw a 

 fair line. If he did hold it so, however, he would be 

 wasting strength. To grip tightly is to expend 

 energy, and energy applied by the left hand to a 

 fishing-rod does not communicate itself to the line. 

 I think that, on the contrary, it may possibly 

 neutralise some part of the energy of the right hand, 

 just above the reel. The energy of the left hand 

 tends, if anywhither, in a direction opposite to that 

 in which the right hand is engaged. We hear of 

 single-handed rods and double-handed rods ; but, I 

 think, the truth is that all rods, properly used, are 

 single-handed. The appearances deceive. A trout 

 rod you hold in one hand, and to a salmon rod you 

 apply both hands ; and you are apt to assume that 

 to cast a salmon fly you use both arms. This is 

 true only in a manner. You use the left hand to 



