MENTAL CONTROL OF THE MUSCLES 211 



I trust that I am not unduly optimistic in believing that 

 I am generally considered as being the pioneer of the stiff 

 wrist theory ; certainly I have always recommended the 

 forearm muscles as the power to be employed in all and 

 every sort of single-handed casting with a fly rod. 



CAPTAIN MARRYAT 



Captain Marryat than whom no better fisherman ever 

 lived not only used the thumb as the agent for controlling 

 the inflexibility of the wrist and permitting the muscles of 

 the forearm to do the work, but used his forefinger to assist 

 the thumb in doing so. I believe this was due to the fact 

 that the rods used in those days were not so light or so well 

 actioned as those of the present day, and I have heard that 

 those used by Captain Marryat were by no means the 

 lightest even of those then built. Consequently the aid 

 of the forefinger to assist the thumb in its duty of controlling 

 the inflexibility of the wrist, is understandable, and was 

 apparently used by Captain Marryat in order that the 

 muscles of the forearm should effectively convey the force 

 necessary in delivering his fly. 



Many men are strong enough to get out a fairly lengthy 

 line, and very often an accurate one, when obviously 

 bringing into play a good deal of pivotal wrist action, but a 

 closer analysis of their casting will show that even this is 

 only a limited wrist action which occurs at a portion of the 

 cast least vital to its ultimate success ; this pivotal action, 

 however is more or less corrected by its being converted into 

 a forearm action at the most critical and important portion 

 of the cast, i.e., as the downward action of the rod is checked 

 and this by the rigidity of the wrist at that moment. 



At the conclusion of the backward and forward effort it 

 may be found by those who make the wrist one of the pivots 

 of the rod action, that their casting is improved by what they 



