METHODS OF CASTING A SALMON FLY 335 



brought round, up and over, as described under the Spey 

 cast, it is brought forward again down-stream, the butt 

 resting against the hip, the hands are changed, and the left 

 foot is advanced, the rod being then brought up and 

 backward over the left shoulder immediately away from 

 the direction in which the fly has to fall and the fly is then 

 switched forward. 



The whole of this movement is continuous, the rod being 

 moved backward, forward, and up and over the left shoulder 

 as steadily as a golf club should be raised, the acceleration 

 forward into the downward switch commencing when the 

 rod has reached an angle of about twenty-two degrees 

 behind the vertical line of the body. 



This cast is very easily acquired, and should be practised at 

 first with a line from about twenty to twenty-five yards long. 



I have never seen anyone using it, but I have found it 

 extremely useful when a tree or branches on the up-stream 

 side has prevented me from bringing the rod up, round and 

 backward after the up-stream movement of the rod in the 

 Spey cast. 



This cast has this advantage that more line is lifted 

 from the water and brought up-stream, owing to the up- 

 stream motion, than is the case in the left-handed loop cast. 



A VARIATION OF THE WYE CAST WHEN DANGER is BEHIND 



My reader will kindly imagine that we are fishing in 

 Norway, and standing on the left bank of the Namsen River, 

 below the Fiscum Foss. High above our heads we can see the 

 river, broad as the Thames at Richmond, as it sweeps over 

 the edge of the falls, and appreciate its immense volume of 

 water as, thundering in our ears, shaking the rocks on which 

 we stand, and covering us with spray, it plunges downwards 

 a sheer 200 feet into the enormous salmon pool, which 

 constitutes the end of the Namsen as a salmon river. If 



