318 THE SALMON FLY. 



" Stay," I said, " don't jerk the rod in lifting the line at starting, but 

 with the point of it held down towards the fly (not over your head), get 

 the rod well bent by rapidly increasing the upward pressure ; and look at 

 your line as it goes in the air behind you. . . There it flies, not away 

 to your right rear, as it should do, in a direct line up towards that cloud 

 there, but sweeps round, mowing the grass actually behind you. Do not 

 let the point of the rod decline from you in lifting the line ; bring the rod 

 straight up past your right shoulder, and instead of swinging it round 

 behind you, check it sooner ; when, to make sure you have done right, 

 you can let the line drop on the grass to see if you had given it the 

 tendency to turn from a straight course." 



" Thanks; fault No. 1," my pupil said, with a look on his face as if 

 he expected other corrections to follow. " And I suppose you don't 

 approve of the way I make the ' thrash-down ' ? " he added inquiringly. 



" I was coming to that. You don't ' thrash-down ' at all, but give a 

 sort of side cut with the rod, and at the same time commit what, though 

 proper to Trout fishing, is a radical error in Salmon-angling, viz., trying 

 to make the top joint do the work." 



" Then you wish me, as it were, not only to work from the butt, but 

 also to thrash downward, if I understand rightly, in the destined direction 

 of the cast." 



" Exactly so, and in no other way will you be able to get the full 

 length of line straight out in front of you by this method." 



I then proceeded to correct his attitude, getting him to advance his 

 left leg sufficiently forward to secure firmness of balance, and to warn 

 him to avoid labouring and swaying backwards and forwards, instead of 

 preserving a soldierly, erect position a position which, grown into habit, 

 becomes to the Angler a source of ease in action and economy in force. 



" Then." I continued, " in the details of the cast, I notice two other 

 points to which you must pay special attention. First, the action of the 

 two hands, as you attempted to make the cast just now, was suggestive 

 rather of whipping than of casting. Maintain the hands throughout the 

 cast in their proper relative positions, so that in the back motion the 

 lower hand does not become unduly raised towards the front, or the point 

 of the rod will descend too far behind you. ... As I said just now, 



