THROWING THE LINE AND FLIES. 15 



but not with so much of the latter as if you were 

 about to strike a knock-down blow. The whole 

 of the arm must be brought round to the right 

 with an easy, large sweep, and the line thrown 

 forward well from the shoulder. There must be 

 no coachman-like jerk with the wrist backwards, as 

 the front portion of the line is descending to the 

 water, but the hand must follow the rod, and stop 

 by a well-timed degree of suddenness, so that the 

 line will fall on the water with a somewhat quick 

 rather than a lazy floating motion. 



As soon as you can throw from eight to ten 

 yards of your reel-line with the power of making 

 not more than a yard or two of the front portion 

 of it fall lightly on the water, and in whatsoever 

 direction you may choose, add to it, what is called 

 the " foot " or " casting-line " of moderately thick 

 silkworm gut, in length about two yards. You 

 will now have ten yards of line, more or less, to 

 throw with, and you must practise until you can 

 cause the gut-line to fall upon the water before 

 any part of the reel-line touches it. Do not be 

 in a hurry to put on flies and fish. When you 

 have succeeded in throwing your gut-line with 

 freedom, with the ability of making it alight first 

 upon the water when you can prevent the top 

 of your rod from descending too low when you 

 can prevent any part of your reel-line from making 

 a more rapid descent than that of your casting-line, 



