68 MENDING THE CAST 



last. Never mind looking for a rise : there are sure 

 to be fish there. Well done again ! and a good one, 

 but you struck with your arm and shoulder, and have 

 broken your cast. Now quickly ! we must not lose 

 time while the fish are taking so freely. Let me see 

 your cast. Yes, you have broken off the lower point, 

 so I place about 2 inches of the end of the cast in 

 my mouth to soften. You see this round and flat 

 cast-box ; it has some slightly moist white flannel 

 in it, a spare cast, and some fine points. I take out a 

 point, look at it with my watchmaker's glass in my 

 eye. Yes, it is all right smooth and free from glints. 

 So I pass it through my lips, close the box again, and, 

 taking the point I have selected, make an overhand 

 knot in the extreme end. I take the broken end out 

 of my mouth, run it through the overhand knot, 

 and make another knot of the same kind in the end 

 of it, only enclosing the gut point in this knot.* I draw 

 both overhand knots firmly but completely taut. Each 

 knot now encloses the gut which has formed the other 

 knot. I draw the two knots firmly together by pulling 

 the cast and the point, and, taking out my knife, I 

 open the scissors and snip off each end fairly close. 

 Place this quite new Blue Quill, which I have taken 

 out of my fly-box, on the end of the fresh point, oil it 

 carefully, take off the superfluous oil, and replace oil- 

 brush. Now continue to fish the run right up beyond 

 % 



the ripple at its head. Stop ! You have thrown your 



fly amid those alder branches on the far side. Do not 



* See Diagram 13, p. 128. 



