316 WHAT FORCE TO EMPLOY. 



ability for a day or two until he can pitch the line out 

 somehow. Then let him get some adept to instruct him 

 how to get it out properly, and to correct any fault in his 

 manipulation. After that, practice, practice, practice, and 

 watching a performer now and then at work, will do the 

 rest. 



Another rule of great importance I would here em- 

 phatically lay down, and that is, never use more strength 

 or vigour in making a cast than is absolutely necessary, for 

 all beyond that is not only downright waste of power, but 

 positively defeats the end the fisher has in view. Let him 

 study, not how much strength he can put into the cast, 

 but how little; not how much noise he can make by 

 * swooshing ' his rod through the air, but whether he can- 

 not avoid making any at all. And if any old angler, who 

 has been accustomed to adopt the former plan, will only 

 try the latter a few times, I am confident that the result 

 will positively amaze him. It is astonishing how hard it 

 is at times, with all your force, to send a fly against or 

 through the wind truly and fairly, and how easy it really 

 is to do with little or no force at all. When I hear an 

 angler's rod * swooshing ' through the air on a windy day, 

 as one often may hear it seventy or eighty yards away, I 

 think it very extraordinary that he should never by ac- 

 cident have discovered that all that force and noise is not 

 only superfluous, but mischievous ; and how that without 

 it he would cast an infinitely better line, and not strain his 

 rod, particularly the ferrules, as he is doing. In Tery 

 long throws, of course, a good deal of force must be em- 

 ployed ; but in ordinary ones, no matter what the weather 

 or wind, or which way it blows, it is absolutely unneces- 

 sary. I have often surprised myself by seeing how beau- 

 tifully 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 consider that he 



