198 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



due to circumstances over which he appears to have little 

 or no control. 



The drag is a bugbear to both the single-handed and the 

 double-handed fisherman, whether he be casting a wet or a 

 dry trout fly, a salmon fly, or spinning. The fault is always 

 due to the fact that some part of the line between the rod-top 

 and the lure travels faster than the lure itself, and conse- 

 quently either drags the dry fly along the water, or produces 

 a sag in the line, during the down-stream methods of casting, 

 which very naturally prevents the realization of the fact 

 that a fish is investigating the sunken lure. 



The first kind of drag, and one which is most common and 

 the least recognized by the fisherman himself, is that which 

 occurs immediately his dry fly falls on the water, and this 

 particular fault is due to the fact that the line is not dead 

 when it falls, but has a distinct motion of its own sometimes 

 toward and sometimes away from the fisherman, which 

 affects the fly after it has fallen, dragging it with an un- 

 natural motion along the surface. The fault save when 

 a strong wind affects the line and gives it motion is that 

 if the cast has been correctly made, the shooting of the line 

 has not been properly effected, and the line in such a cast 

 has been allowed to extend itself with a jerk and recoil back 

 towards the fisherman. A second kind of drag will occur even 

 if the casting and the shooting have been properly carried 

 out, if the rod be not lowered to the water in exact 

 sympathy with the falling line. 



In this case if the fisherman is supposed to be casting 

 from the bank some four feet above the water level, and if 

 the rod has been checked in its downward course at the 

 usual angle, the line, by the time it is extended, would be 

 at a height of about six feet above the water. Owing to 

 the fact that it has been correctly released, it has exhausted 

 all its surplus energy in dragging out the spare line, has 



