AVOIDING THE DRAG 



23 



should then be made. The body action should in 

 each case slightly precede the rod action. As the body 

 swings round toward the mark, the forearm and rod 

 must remain pointing backward, and if necessary, and 

 to ease this position, the elbow can be drawn in toward 

 the side, and the forward cast can then be made from 

 the elbow, and not with any body or shoulder action. 

 To get a clearer idea of the angles made by this rod 

 in backward and forward motions of the side cast, 

 the reader should take Diagrams 1 and 3 as being 

 the horizontal instead of the vertical angles made by 

 the rod, the right foot being situated at F and pointing 

 midway between B C and B A respectively in these 

 two diagrams. 



AVOIDING THE DRAG 



A trout will often be noticed rising in comparatively 

 still water on the further side of a stream, while 

 between the fish and the angler the current may be 

 rapid. To cast a dry fly which will remain on the 

 water sufficiently long to give the fish an opportunity 

 of rising is, under such circumstances, perhaps one of 

 the most difficult casts which have to be made, as the 

 current will, if the line is thrown straight, cause an 

 almost instantaneous drag on the fly which has fallen 

 in the still water beyond it, a fault which will most 

 certainly deter the fish from taking it. A side cast 

 of the line up-stream is in this case the only method 

 by which the immediate drag can be avoided, and 





