180 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



Lightness in picking the line off the water when making 

 the back cast is one of the important factors to successful 

 dry fly fishing, for more fish are scared, i.e., put down, by 

 the disturbance caused by lifting the line in a faulty back 

 cast, than by a faulty forward one. It is therefore most 

 important to remember that, prior to the back cast being 

 made, the rod top should be lowered to the water 

 and all the slack line gathered in by the left hand, and that 

 the rod should then be raised quietly and steadily upward, 

 but with a slightly accelerated motion, until the cast and 

 fly are about to leave the water, when the final flicking 

 backward motion should be given to the rod. 



Lightness in the forward cast, as before mentioned, is 

 achieved by extending the line and cast horizontally before 

 it drops on to the water. 



THE WIND CAST 



A head wind was, until the last few years, regarded as one 

 of the greatest difficulties, if not really the greatest, against 

 which the fly fisherman had to contend, but this view has 

 now practically disappeared. In " The Science of Dry Fly 

 Fishing," 1905, I say : 



" If the wind be against the fisherman, the downward action 

 of the forward overhead cast should be finished still lower." 



This advice is sound, and cannot be improved, remember- 

 ing always that the wrist has to be kept rigid, and that the 

 force applied culminates as the rod is checked at the 

 conclusion of the downward effort. 



If the downward action of the rod be made with a stiff 

 wrist, and an ever-increasing force until it is checked below 

 its normal level, the line and fly will be propelled forward at a 

 lower level than usual, and the line will in consequence 

 have considerably less ongoing curvature (see Diagrams 14 

 and 15), and the frictional resistance of the wind, which the 



