236 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



no matter what the weather or wind, or which way it blows, 

 it is absolutely unnecessary. I have often surprised myself 

 by seeing how beautifully straight the fly goes, without 

 doubling or bagging, through the wind, by merely letting the 

 top do the work it was intended for. The angler should con- 

 sider that he does not cast with the butt or main joints of his 

 rod, and need not therefore try to bring them into play. 

 The part of the rod which sends the fly home is the most 

 pliable part ; why not, then, let that do its duty, instead of 

 trying to make the less pliable parts take its place, which they 

 cannot and do not do ? 



And now as to long casting. Thirty yards from the reel to 

 the fly is good casting, and every yard beyond that very good 

 casting; and whenever you hear a person bragging of long 

 casting, ask him whether he measured the cast, and how he 

 measured it, as fishermen do not always carry a yard measure, 

 and are apt to measure too much by computation and too 

 kindly to themselves. The longest cast I ever measured was 

 within a foot of thirty-eight and a half yards from the reel, 

 and that was cast by the late Sir F. Sykes, who was a tall and 

 powerful man, and who was fishing with a twenty-foot rod, 

 which I could hardly manage. I may have seen longer casts, 

 and I think I have, but I did not have the opportunity of 

 measuring them. The most I could ever manage was thirty- 

 four and a half yards from the reel, and this I did on one 

 or two occasions with two different rods, one eighteen and the 

 other nineteen feet long the former a ferruled, and the latter 

 a spliced rod ; but it was from a boat, and consequently there 

 was no hazard of smashing the fly if it touched behind. Pat 

 Hearns, of Ballina, has, I believe, cast forty-two yards. I do 

 not know whether it was measured from the point or the reel ; 

 but as it was for a wager, and many gentlemen were looking on, 

 the fact is indisputable. 



There is a very good dodge which is practised when a very 

 long cast is required to be fished. Having as much line as you 

 can cast out, draw a yard or two off the reel and let it hang 

 down between the hand and reel as in spinning ; when you have 

 made the forward impulse, and the fly is rushing towards the 

 point sought to be reached, open the hand that clasps the rod 

 and line, and the impetus and weight of the line will take with 

 it some of the loose line, and when it touches the water the 

 hang or drag of the stream will carry out the rest. Before 

 fetching the line off the water for a new cast, the part so 



