186 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



THE STEEPLE AND GALWAY CASTS 



The Steeple cast, which is sometimes used to send the 

 line in the backward cast clear of bushes, trees, and other 

 dangers behind the fisherman, is somewhat similar to the 

 overhead cast. In the backward movement the effort is 

 upward rather than backward, the force being applied in the 

 upward part of the back cast. The rod is swung upward, 

 instead of being lifted, and the arm is extended to its full 

 length above, and slightly behind, the vertical line of the 

 body. The right shoulder, the side, the hip, the leg and the 

 foot, can also swing round with the arm as the stroke is 

 made, the weight of the body at the end of the back stroke 

 being supported on the flat of the right foot and the fore 

 part of the left foot. Before casting forward, and while the 

 line is still travelling upward and backward, the elbow 

 should be dropped, the right foot brought forward, and 

 the line returned in the vertical plane as in the overhead 

 cast. 



A much safer, more effective, and prettier cast, however, 

 which I have introduced in order to surmount or avoid 

 dangers which may lie in the direction which the backward 

 cast is required to take, and which entirely supersedes the 

 Steeple cast, is a variation of the Galway cast described 

 later under Salmon Fly Casting, in chapter XVII. and 

 illustrated in Plates XXII. and XXIII. 



The Galway cast with the trout rod should be made as 

 follows : in the backward cast, as the line is steadily raised 

 from the water, the body turns on the ankles to the 

 right or left hand, until it faces the direction in which the 

 fly has to go, and at the same time the hand holding the 

 rod is turned or twisted round to the left or to the right 

 respectively until the thumb is on that side of the rod from 

 which the line is being drawn, and the reel towards the 

 direction to which the back cast has to be made. By the 



