112 FISHING TACKLE 



have occasion to make fishing casts of more than 

 forty or fifty feet, it is nevertheless well to be 

 able to cast farther than that. For every ten 

 feet that you increase your average distance, 

 the difficulty of manipulating rod, line, and fly 

 cleanly will increase. To master these obstacles 

 and gain confidence in yourself and your tackle 

 is worth a great deal more to you, even though 

 you may never need to cast more than forty 

 feet in your fishing. Perfect mastery of a long 

 line counts when you fish under trees, for if 

 you can control a long line in the open, it will 

 be easier to manipulate a short line without get- 

 ting " hung up." Therefore, practice diligently. 

 And as it is a great advantage to know if 

 you are progressing, rig up a line by means of 

 which you can measure your casts roughly, and 

 at the same time aim for precision. Three 

 wooden disks each six inches in diameter will 

 serve. Coat them with enamel, so they will 

 show more plainly in the water than if painted. 

 Make them red, white, and blue, respectively. 

 Take an old fishing line and measuring off fifty 

 feet, tie on a bit of red string. Ten feet farther 

 attach a piece of white string, for sixty feet; 

 and blue string at the seventy-foot mark. Wind 

 the line on an old reel, making the platform 

 end fast to the axle. In use, reel off the line, 



