THE SPEY CAST 237 



let out must be drawn in and allowed to hang loose as 

 before. 



In making a long cast the difficulty is to take all the time 

 possible to allow the line to straighten behind without allowing 

 the fly to touch the ground. For long throwing, the best wind is 

 no wind ; because, although it may be supposed that a wind 

 at your back may help the fly forwards, it does not help it 

 backwards, and the quantity you can send forward is, as I have 

 said, determined by the quantity you can extend fairly back- 

 wards. But for ordinary fishing the performer who can fish some 

 six or seven-and-twenty yards, and fish it well (for there is all 

 the difference in the world between casting and fishing), is a 

 very excellent performer. 



I have mentioned switching* in trout -fishing, but it is 

 chiefly used in salmon-fishing. It is a species of cast that is 

 made when there are high banks or rocks at the angler's back, 

 so that he cannot send his line behind him. And it is one that 

 requires some practice to make from the right shoulder, and a 

 good deal more to accomplish neatly from the left. In switch- 

 ing, if the angler can contrive to wade in a yard or two, he 

 will be able to switch with far less danger to his fly, and more 

 ease to himself, than when standing on the shore, as the object 

 is to deposit the fly on the water previous to casting. If the 

 fisher fetches his fly home only a yard farther than it ought to 

 come, he either smashes it or hooks some obstruction. 



Having got a certain length of line out, somehow or anyhow, 

 and being desirous of making a new cast, he raises his hands 

 well up and carries the rod up to his shoulder pretty smartly ; 

 but he does not send the fly back over the shoulder, but rather 

 fetches it in towards his feet, and he must take care that in 

 doing so it does not come too high above the surface of the 

 water, or it will not catch the water again at the right spot. 

 About two or three yards above him to his right hand, and a 

 little in front of him, the fly must touch the water, but must 

 go no further. This action brings the line into the form of a 

 great bow or arc, to which the rod is the chord. The instant 

 the fly touches the water (and the angler must keep his eye 

 upon it, for if he misses it and touches the bank at all he must 

 not make his cast), a sharp downward turn and cut is made, 

 not towards the spot you wish the line to go to, but to establish 



* This cast is called by various names ; sometimes " the Welsh or Spey 

 cast," or according to the name of some other river where it is practised. 



F. F. 



