A FIRST LESSON IN CASTING 149 



he catches the knack, that little strength is actually 

 required in order to shoot out the lure a considerable 

 distance. "One." Bring the rod up until slightly 

 beyond the perpendicular. "Two." Down until the 

 rod is almost horizontal. That is all there is to cast- 

 ing save "thumbing the reel," "spooling the line," 

 and a few other things. "Thumbing" deserves a 

 paragraph all by itself. 



When you have learned to correctly gauge the 

 magic pressure of that first digit, you will never have 

 a back-lash or any casting trouble, which is tanta- 

 mount to saying that "thumbing" is the secret of suc- 

 cessful casting. And it is. If too much pressure is 

 applied at the commencement of the cast, the reel 

 stops suddenly, and the cast dies "a-borninV Upon 

 the other hand, if not enough pressure is kept upon 

 the rapidly diminishing roll of line, the spool soon 

 over-runs the lure, the line curls under, and that bane 

 of the bait-caster's life results a back-lash. As I 

 have elsewhere put the matter: the handle of the 

 reel may be considered as a balance-wheel. The cast 

 is made. The spool simply surrenders enough line to 

 keep pace with the initial velocity of the lure, but 

 soon gravitation, air pressure, weight of the line, and 

 a hundred-and-one other things combine to retard 

 the hasting lure; regarding all of which the whirring 

 reel and balance-handle fly-wheel remains blissfully 

 unconscious, spinning away for dear life, giving line 

 faster than the lure can handle it. Very simple. 



