OLD THEORY 13 



rod may be raised, whereas, unless the forward action 

 of the rod follows fairly quickly on the back stroke, 

 the line will fall to the ground, and the forward cast 

 will suffer in consequence. Exactly the same propor- 

 tionate increase of force must, however, be applied to 

 each inch of the forward or backward switch when the 

 line is once in the air. 



The old theory of permitting the line to extend itself 

 backwards before the return stroke is made is abso- 

 lutely correct, and in my opinion it is the most easily 

 acquired method of making an accurate and delicate 

 overhead or side cast. In practice, though the absolute 

 extension of the line at the moment of the forward cast 

 is rarely achieved, yet the result is one which enables 

 the fisherman to extend and shoot his line further than 

 in any other style of overhead or side casting. It is 

 one, too, which offers less difficulty to the beginner. 

 Besides these advantages which I claim for it, this 

 method is most efficient when adopting the side and 

 wind casts. Anyone who has carefully watched Enright 

 will have noticed that in all his most successful casts 

 his best forward casts have been made from a position 

 in which his line is almost fully extended behind him, 

 and directly away from the point at which his fly 

 has to alight. One might describe the position of 

 his line as follows : the line at the end of the straight 

 back cast is extended upward toward the highest 

 point of an inclined circular plane, the tip of his rod 

 at its moment of greatest tension is the centre, and 

 the place at which the fly has to alight the lowest 



