CASTING THE FLY. 155. 



case, having wet it, he should draw it through his fingers^ 

 but not too roughly lest he fray the gut, then wet it again, 

 and repeat the drawing and wetting until it becomes 

 pliable. 



Standing with his face rather up-stream, he must let 

 off about as much or a little more line than his rod's 

 length, and poising the rod in his right hand in almost an 

 upright position with a slight forward slant, and holding 

 the stretcher-fly between his left finger and thumb a little 

 wide of his body so as to clear it, wave the rod gently 

 back over his right shoulder, releasing the fly as he does 

 so; when he has reason to suppose that the fly line is 

 fairly extended behind him, he must bring it forward 

 again with a slight outward sweep, so that the fly may not 

 double too sharply back or crack. If he does not give 

 sufficient time for the line to extend itself, and if he makes 

 the return too directly, he will probably hear a slight pop 

 behind ; if he does so a trifle more quickly and directly, 

 the pop will become a crack, and then he will know that 

 his fly is reposing peacefully in the long grass behind him, 

 while his line, guiltless of a lure, is extended on the sur- 

 face of the water. Some people who make the return 

 very directly always pop their flies. The sound is a most 

 unpleasant one to a neat fisherman, as at every pop the 

 gut at the head of the fly is more or less cracked and 

 broken, until at last the fly hangs by a sort of pulp, the 

 hard surface of the gut being altogether destroyed. The 

 angler may make the curve or sweep I have spoken of 

 either on the inside or outside. The outside is the easiest 

 to the novice, and the throw will be the more neatly made. 

 To the experienced hand, the one is as easy as the other. 

 By the outside sweep, I mean that the rod is waved back- 

 wards, say six inches or so from the ear, and is then 

 brought forward some six inches farther out from it ; in 

 the inside sweep this is of course reversed, the line being; 



