200 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



jerking impulse is a very common fault, and it was while 

 studying this fault and its result in casting that I discovered 

 the most certain method of throwing a fly so as to avoid the 

 drag caused by a rapid stream running between the fisherman 

 and the position of a rising trout. 



When a trout is seen rising in a position that must insure 

 a drag if the overhead cast be adopted, a more or less side 

 cast should be made up-stream (see Side cast). If the 

 forward side cast be started gently and with an accelerating 

 forward action, and a jerky forward impulse given to the 

 rod after it starts, and the rest of the forward action be 

 continued as before, this snatchy action will cause the line 

 to belly up-stream, just as the same snatchy action will cause 

 the line to belly down toward the water in the overhead cast. 



This up-stream curve in the line as it falls on the water 

 should not affect the direction of the fly, but it will permit 

 it to fall correctly and remain undisturbed on the water 

 until the more rapid run of the stream has swept the curved 

 portion of the line from its up-stream side to a similar curve 

 down-stream by which time, the trout should have risen, 

 if it means to take the fly. 



This method of avoiding such a drag on the dry fly will 

 also assist the fisherman when he has to encounter a similar 

 evil when fishing down-stream, which occasions what is 

 known as a sagging line, i.e., the belly of the line moving 

 faster down-stream than the fly end of the line. 



It will be seen that by adopting this method of casting, the 

 line can always be thrown in a curve on the water. This curva- 

 ture of the line on the water is at times useful when the fisher- 

 man is immediately below his fish, for a straight line which 

 brings a dry fly immediately above a fish may disturb the 

 water, whereas if the fly be thrown immediately above the fish, 

 as it should be, with such a curving action of the line, there 

 will be considerable less danger of the fish being scared. 



