LAKE CASTING FROM A BOAT 225 



words of advice more or less helpful to the tyro. 

 With this word of explanation I make my bow. 



I have already said that boat casting is the fav- 

 orite method of fishing with the user of the short 

 rod, and have given one reason why it is so, in a 

 word, casting room. No brush behind, no limbs 

 overhead, nothing to catch the lure. However, 

 casting from an open boat, especially with a com- 

 panion, is not so easy as it seems. Not every user 

 of the short rod is an adept in a boat, particularly 

 if he must remain seated. This being true, there 

 must be other reasons why this method of casting is 

 so universally popular. I think it is found in the 

 boat itself and in the wide-reaching expanse of 

 water. The average man loves a boat, is born with 

 a love for the water. Wading does not wholly sat- 

 isfy, he must feel the uneasy motion, experience the 

 thrill that comes when he shoves his little bark out 

 upon the bosom of the lake. And this lure of the 

 wide-reaches is very real and insistent. I well re- 

 member taking a certain urban trout fisher bass cast- 

 ing on one of my favorite wilderness lakes. We 

 left camp early in the morning, rowing directly 

 across the lake to a lily bed. On the journey over 

 my companion was strangely silent, gazing over 

 the water with a far-away look in his eyes. At last, 

 as we neared our destination, he heaved a sigh and 

 remarked, "This is the first time I was ever out- 

 doors." Every lake caster can appreciate that. It 



