VARYING THE DIRECTION OF CAST. 21 



After each cast is made and the position of the fly 

 noticed, the rod should be raised steadily until the line is 

 straight and commencing to be drawn along the surface 

 of the water ; the back stroke should then be made. 

 Lightness in picking the line off the water is a 

 most important art, which can be acquired by following 

 out these and my former suggestions. Lightness in 

 casting, as before mentioned, is achieved by extending the 

 line horizontally, as far as possible, before the fly drops 

 on the water. 



We must now consider the method of getting the line, 

 which will otherwise travel in the plane of the back cast, to 

 leave that plane, and by this means to vary the direction of 

 the fly in the forward cast. 



When the rod is moved backward or forward in a 

 vertical, horizontal, or any other direction, the line, subject 

 to the influence of the wind, will travel backward and 

 forward in the plane of this movement, but as long as the 

 line is in motion, it will always be influenced by any new 

 movement of the rod ; in this fact lies the secret of casting 

 the fly to any desired direction. In order to effect this a 

 curved motion must be made by the point of the rod at the 

 end of the back switch, and on the time and the manner 

 of this curve will depend the success of the cast in the new 

 direction. In my method of casting against the wind, which 

 has been explained on page 17, the line, after the back 

 cast, would have travelled vertically backward, but by the 



