

THE SCIENCE OF CASTING A TROUT FLY 157 



At the end of the back cast the fly should have arrived 

 at its highest point of elevation, the rod point being situated 

 somewhere in the line between it and the place on the 

 water where the fly has to alight. 



Some fishermen, however, do not extend their lines behind 

 them, and their overhead forward casts are in reality made 

 when their line is in a vertical backward curve or loop 

 in other words, they make their forward casts when their 

 lines are in a position such as is shown in Plate XLI. If 

 the reader will turn to this Plate and assume that in the 

 picture the fisherman is making his forward cast, he will see 

 that this forward impulse can only be directly transmitted 

 to the shortest portion of the line, while a good deal of the 

 impulse must be lost in dragging the longer part of the line 

 in the opposite direction. 



While I experience no difficulty in casting in this particular 

 style so long as a perfect continuity of force of the back- 

 ward and forward action be sustained, yet I find that a 

 successful wind cast is difficult, that my distance is more 

 limited, and my accuracy less. In 1905, when first putting 

 my theories into print, I had to consider, not the merits of 

 such a style of casting, but whether a result equally good 

 so far as delicacy was concerned would not be more easily 

 acquired by permitting the line to extend itself backward 

 before making the forward cast, and whether such a style 

 would not give equal delicacy, greater accuracy, and better 

 results when casting against the wind and for distance casting. 



That I have succeeded in establishing the correctness of 

 my theories will, I think, be generally admitted. One of 

 my most successful pupils in flycasting, certainly as regards 

 success at tournaments, is Mr. R. D. Hughes, and anyone 

 who has seen him use his rod and line will have noticed how 

 fully he permits his line to extend itself behind, before he 

 makes his forward cast. 



