THE SCIENCE OF CASTING A TROUT FLY 153 



There is one important point to remember : the right 

 elbow should be used as the pivot of the rod, and the hand 

 regarded as a socket, which, with the wrist rigidly controlled, 

 makes the forearm and the butt one continuous part of the 

 rod. 



Now raise the point of the rod steadily and vertically 

 upwards in order to pick up the line* and without stopping 

 this lifting movement of the arm and rod, convert it into 

 a smart backward switch, stopping the rod suddenly as it 

 attains an angle of about twenty-two degrees behind the 

 vertical (see Plate XVII). 



If the forearm be brought backward until the thumb nail 

 is checked by the peak of the cap, and if the extended 

 thumb be used to stop any further backward action of 

 the rod, the wrist cannot be bent. 



Plates XVII. and XVIIL, and Diagrams 8 and 9, show 

 clearly the correct position of the rod and arm at the end 

 of and during the back overhead cast. 



If the backward cast is made properly, the line will curl 

 over the top of the rod and extend itself backward (see 

 Plate XLI.). If the backward impetus of the rod over- 

 comes the rigidity of the wrist, it will simply be due to the 

 fact that " attention " is not concentrated on the duty of 

 the thumb. 



The wrist must, however, be kept rigid, and therefore 

 attention must be so concentrated until this necessary 

 muscular control of the rod becomes a habit. It will 

 be of great assistance when acquiring this habit if the 

 thumb be brought back towards the face and checked dead 

 as it reaches the peak of the cap. 



* The vertical lift upward of the point of the trout and salmon rod is made, 

 not only to raise the line well from the water, but in order that the hand 

 which lifts the rod may have plenty of distance to move horizontally 

 backward in the direction in which the line is to travel in the back 

 cast 



