THE SCIENCE OF CASTING A TROUT FLY 169 



work conclusively a scientific treatise, as well as a practical 

 aid in casting. 



My theories apply not only to the single-handed rod, but 

 also to the double-handed rod, and I have great pleasure in 

 publishing in this work, and for the first time, the principles 

 which must govern the true method of using the rod when 

 spinning from the reel, which principles will be found to be 

 capable of as accurate and as scientific a definition as that 

 which attends the accurate casting of a trout or salmon 

 fly, or which accompanies the art of using a straight bat. 



If the habit of extending the line and fly in the overhead 

 cast backward and forward, so that it falls with delicacy and 

 accuracy at any desired spot, be acquired as a knack, and 

 not as the result* of a continued repetition of a carefully 

 considered mental process, it will not even if the knack 

 be remembered assist the fisherman to use his hand or 

 hands in any other form of the same cast, or to make any 

 other recognized casts. 



When merely the knack of doing a thing is acquired by 

 anyone, it is difficult for such an one without a considerable 

 amount of mental analysis to explain the methods of doing 

 it or to properly instruct others. He may say " Watch 

 me carefully as I do this or that, and try to do the same," 

 and his pupil, after more or less labour, may acquire more 

 or less knack, but it will not assist the latter to acquire any 

 other style of casting, unless he fully analyzes the knack 

 he has acquired, finds out exactly what his muscles are 

 doing, and then determines the mental processes which 

 should be applied to the muscles in order to carry out 

 any new cast. 



If he knows what he has to think of in order to get 

 his muscles to do their work, he can, when he knows how the 

 rod should be moved in any one style of casting, be able to 

 vary the mental process by which his former action was 



