14 MR. V. CORRIE'S METHOD 



point of the plane. Some of the best of our English 

 fishermen, however, do not extend their lines behind 

 them, and their overhead casts are in reality made 

 when their line is in a vertical upward curve or loop 

 in other words, they make their forward casts when 

 their lines are in a position such as is shown in 

 Plate IV. Practice and skill have made Mr. Valentine 

 Corrie's casting not only delightful to watch, but 

 accurate and delicate in its results, and Mr. Halford, 

 after taking a series of photographs of Mr. Corrie when 

 casting, asserts that "the old theory of waiting until 

 the line is fully extended behind before commencing 

 to make the cast was utterly exploded." Mr. Halford 

 declares this because the results of these photographs 

 showed that Mr. Corrie does not wait for any exten- 

 sion of his line backward to occur before making his 

 forward cast. The problem is, not to question the 

 merits of such a style of casting, but rather to consider 

 whether a result equally as good in so far as delicacy 

 and accuracy are concerned, with better results as to 

 distance, would not be more easily acquired by per- 

 mitting the line to extend itself as much as possible 

 to its full length before making the forward cast. 



In the first place, if the reader will turn to Plate IV., 

 and imagine that the fisherman is proceeding to make 

 his forward stroke, he will at once notice that this 

 forward impulse will be transmitted to only the 

 shortest portion of the line; but a good deal of the 

 impulse will apparently be lost in dragging the longer 

 part of the line in the opposite direction to that in 



