172 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



the action of casting the fly, leads to confusion in the mind 

 of the beginner, who, associating the word " throw " with 

 its usual application, uses the muscles of his arm in an 

 endeavour, by a throwing action, to get his fly forward to 

 its destination. But the idea of " throwing " the fly, i.e., 

 making a " forward " throwing action with the rod, should 

 be banished from the mind, and the brain used in a different 

 sequence of thought. 



Unfortunately the ideas handed down to us by past 

 authorities on the art of fly casting have resulted in our 

 attempting to alter this universal method of using the 

 forearm muscles in our every day action, with a result which 

 has made effective fly casting a habit most difficult and most 

 tedious to acquire. Such a variation of a habit effectually 

 displaces the natural dependence we repose in the judgment 

 of our own senses, and those who effect the backward and 

 forward action of their rod by a mentally determined move- 

 ment of the wrist lose the ability to distinguish readily and 

 without a more or less prolonged trial, the most common 

 and gravest fault in all single-handed rods, viz., the hit. 



The rod should become, so far as its action is concerned, 

 a portion of the forearm, and its elasticity should merge into 

 the elasticity of the holder, or otherwise there will be a point 

 at which an abrupt change from one to another state of 

 elasticity takes place. This more or less abrupt change 

 does occur between each joint of the rod, but the strain of 

 this is borne by the rigid metal sockets, and the mechanical 

 skill of the rod maker is thus able to merge the elasticity of 

 the top joint into that of the middle joint, and of the middle 

 point into the butt end ; and, if the rod has a good action, 

 this elasticity should merge through the hand used as 

 another socket by the wrist into the forearm, and thus it 

 is the muscles of the forearm which should do the work, 

 and the elbow becomes the pivot of the action of the rod. 



