Casting. 9 1 



even alight at all. Too much of the line is in such 

 a case suspended over the stream to impart to the 

 light cast sufficient steadying power, or ensure 

 promptness and precision in the fall of the flies ; 

 and even if the angle vanished altogether, the light- 

 ness of the ordinary line might still quite effectually 

 prevent this. Whereas, in my style of casting, the 

 heavy hair-line promptly responds to the action of 

 the rod, and brings down the lighter portion fully 

 extended on the surface of the water; the tapering 

 line falls gently and more gently till the gut is 

 reached; and the trail and droppers alight almost 

 simultaneously, with all the delicacy of gossamer. 



The beginner will probably find it easier to cast 

 from the right shoulder than from the left; but 

 with increasing practice he will be able to cast 

 from either side, according to circumstances of wind 

 or position. Success in angling will demand from 

 him much more than this ; but nothing will min- 

 ister more to such success than a masterly style of 

 handling the rod. The angler of to-day, compared 

 with his brother of thirty or forty years ago, has 

 so many disadvantages in over-fished, polluted, and 

 impoverished streams, and in highly educated trout, 

 that he cannot afford to dispense with any benefit 

 which improved skill in casting is calculated to 

 bring him. The primitive " clothes-prop- and-line" 

 style will not do now ; and it has often been ques- 



