THE ART OF CASTING 



secret of "making the rod do its full work." 

 When once you have caught the knack of utiliz- 

 ing this element to its full value you will note 

 as a revelation with what slight effort and how 

 smoothly the cast is delivered. The correct 

 timing of the back-cast and other fine points are 

 acquired instinctively, only by practise. As one 

 lengthens the cast, the back-cast pause must be 

 lengthened correspondingly. A point that 

 helped the writer much is to endeavor to throw 

 the line straight up in the air when lifting the 

 fly from the water, instead of thinking of throw- 

 ing it behind you. Too low a back-cast, caused 

 by carrying the rod too far back over the shoulder, 

 and the failure to start the back-cast suddenly 

 enough are the common errors of the novice. 

 A quick twist of the wrist from left to right, in 

 effecting the back-cast, seems both to facilitate 

 it and minimizes the chance of the line striking 

 the rod or coming back into the rodster's face, 

 especially when it is breezy. 



(The accompanying illustrations of the over- 

 head fly-cast are from photos of that veteran 

 angler, the late Lou S. Darling, taken by 

 Edward Cave.) 



In a communication to Forest and Stream, 

 Warren Coleman writes interestingly of a "pre- 

 viously undescribed movement of the rod in 

 fly-casting." Says he, "In my analysis of the 

 act, the completed cast consists not of three, 

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