METHODS OF CASTING A SALMON FLY 325 



the latter pivoting round on the toe as the body turns, and 

 supporting the weight of the body until the foot is 

 brought forward. During this movement the position and 

 direction of the rod remain about the same, the point 

 merely rising from ten to fifteen degrees in the air so as to 

 keep the rod in touch with the line. The rod is twisted so 

 that the reel now becomes uppermost, the thumbs and 

 knuckles also reversing their positions. The arms remain 

 bent and the body assumes the position which it should 

 have at the conclusion of an overhead backward cast. 

 The elbows, etc., of the fisherman are moved in sympathy 

 with the action. 



The right foot is now brought forward and as this is being 

 done the forward and downward switch is made, but in a 

 direction which avoids any possibility of danger, so that 

 in reality what should have been a backward cast now 

 becomes, owing to the turn of the body etc., a forward cast 

 in the backward direction. The rod however, is not brought 

 down to its usual level, but is checked at an angle of about 

 fifty degrees above the horizon. 



While the line is extending itself the body again turns 

 round to the left, and faces the direction from which the line 

 has originally been taken and to which the fly has now to 

 be directed. The right foot again swings forward, and, as by 

 this time the line has fully extended itself, the forward and 

 downward switch has to be made as in the overhead cast. 

 Plates XLIII. and XLIV. clearly show the foot and the 

 body movements during this cast. In Plate XLIV. the 

 foot is shown leaving the ground and the forward cast 

 being made, the line being seen as extended. 



The Galway cast is a very pretty one, and is of use when 

 for instance, an opening occurs amid the trees behind the 

 fisherman, and when such trees are within the radius of the 

 back cast of his line, and when a loop or curved side cast 



