12 CASTING AS A BEGINNER. 



CASTING-AS A BEGINNER. 



TROUBLES OF A DRY FLY CAST THE PERVERSITY 

 OF TROUT Two EVENINGS* EXPERIENCE. 



THE actual muscular or mechanical action 

 of casting a line with a fly attached 

 admits of no explanation by mere words. 

 As Mr. Herbert Spencer occupied several pages 

 before acquiring the polysyllabic satisfaction of 

 his definition of * Life,' humbler individuals 

 prone to the use of a single word when a cast 

 goes wrong, may be forgiven if they avoid 

 defining the process. It can only be acquired 

 by practice and vastly improved by watching a 

 good man at work while really fishing. To 

 practice with a line upon a lawn is of course 

 a good plan at first, keeping the elbow fairly 

 close to one's side and using the forearm and 

 wrist until by the knack of a slight but almost 

 imperceptible jerk and pause the line flies 

 forward and backward in the air without falling 

 down at one's feet or becoming entangled with 

 the top joint. 



By the river's bank it all becomes more 

 difficult and there is no denying that the per- 



