THE SCIENCE OF CASTING A TROUT FLY 171 



fly is being cast, or when the rod is extended in the act of 

 fishing. 



When I refer to the mistake of bending the wrist and to 

 the action so frequently alluded to by fishermen as a 

 " delicate wrist action," I mean that bending of the wrist, 

 which permits the hand to move as a hinge to and fro in 

 the same plane as that in which the fingers and thumb are 

 fixed. 



Now the beginner will have to decide whether he will use 

 those muscles which are always brought into play when 

 any determined and controlled effort is made which affects 

 the raising, lifting, or other motion of any article held between 

 the fingers and the thumb or whether he will attempt to 

 educate muscles which have neither by evolution or practice 

 been used when thus lifting a weight. 



The muscles controlling the wrist are intended, and are 

 used, by man for the main purpose of keeping the wrist 

 rigid, in order that the muscles of the forearm can supply 

 their energy to the work which has to be done by the hand. 

 The mental processes controlling our hand movements 

 have, through the many and repeated efforts and struggles 

 of childhood and youth, become so intimately a portion of 

 our every action, that the thought of any movement of a 

 finger or the thumb is sufficient to stiffen the wrist and thus 

 permit their control by the muscles of the forearm. The 

 muscles in the forearm are thus subconsciously controlled 

 by the brain to this purpose, and it is only with the greatest 

 difficulty we can acquire any other mental habit which will 

 enable us to utilize other and less trained muscles to carry out 

 our desires in any but our accustomed manner. Hence the 

 difficulty of learning to cast by means of a separate muscular 

 movement of the wrist. 



The action of the rod on the line when casting a fly is 

 of an uncoiling nature : the word " throw " as expressing 



