FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



The advantages of the double hand " Schooling " overhead cast are 

 great; it enables you to send your bait straight out just where you want 

 it to go and to any reasonable distance; the longest measured cast with 

 a two-and-a-half ounce bait I have made was just over eighty yards. I have 

 taught several friends (some who had never tried to cast in any way before) 

 to do fifty yards, within five minutes of beginning, and this almost en- 

 tirely because of the automatic thumb release. By the way, I think I have 

 previously mentioned, but it is worth repeating, that, after making any 

 cast from a reel the rod should be stopped and held with the point at an angle 

 of about 45 degrees. Do not drop the point of the rod at all, until the bait 

 is about to fall into the water at the end of the cast. You want to keep the 

 rod pointing in the same direction as the line is travelling. If you drop the 

 point you just for a second break the continuity by making an angle in the 

 line, and that is often sufficient to allow the reel to take a few inches of line 

 round the barrel instead of going through the rings, this causing a sudden 

 check and a tangle on the reel, and even a break if it is a fine line. For this 

 reason never use a spinning rod with any double action; after the cast the 

 rod should not wobble up and down, but come to rest stiff and straight, so 

 the line can flow out through the rings in a perfectly straight line. 



A great advantage of the overhead cast is that you can make it from 

 cramped positions where the side swing would be dangerous or impossible ; 

 so it is invaluable on crowded piers, or on a river or lake where trees 

 and bushes leave only narrow openings overhead; again in places where 

 you have to avoid boughs overhanging the water. 



The disadvantages of the overhead double -hand cast are, chiefly, that 

 the smaller the diameter of your reel the better it is suited to the over- 

 hand cast; this means that large sea reels which one can use with the side 

 swing are next to useless with the direct -overhead. The bigger the dia- 

 meter the sooner it pulls the bait down; probably the reason is that the 

 big reel does not give off line quickly enough; in the side swing this does 

 not matter so much, because the pull is sideways, and not straight down, 

 and the angler soon gets to allow for the side pull, and, if casting from the 

 left side, sends the bait well behind to his right, so as to get a good long 

 swing. The reasons I have given may be wrong, but they are all I can think 

 of to account for the fact that, using the same rod, weight, and line, with 

 a small diameter American multiplier, I can easily and with comfort 

 cast a much longer line than with any reel of double the diameter, i.e., in 

 overhead casting. 

 206 



