THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



cast of flies being held meantime in his left hand, 

 and the rod being nearly perpendicular, by an ap- 

 preciable movement of the wrist from left to right 

 he gave the tip of his rod a flirt, and the line and 

 leader curled backward, lengthening out behind 

 him. Then, without a turn of the eye (it was 

 intuition that told him that his rear cast was 

 ended), he reversed the movement of the wrist, 

 springing the rod to the front, and the flies, quiv- 

 ering, fell within an inch of the spot which his 

 judgment had told him was a likely one. 



The Doctor ignored the traditionary teachings 

 of the craft, by his disbelief in the " forty-five 

 degree " angle doctrine. 



" Herbert, Morris, Scott, and the rest of them," 

 he once said during a camp-fire talk, " may have 

 found it all right; but, boys, I think that many of 

 our angling lessons, as taught in the books, are 

 laid down on the principle of follow-your-leader. 

 Walton led, and the crowd of moderns followed. 

 Take this ( angle of forty-five degrees ' in hand 

 and put it in practice. Nine times out of ten your 

 backward cast of fifty feet will plump your flies, 

 when handled on a ten-foot rod, into the water 

 behind you. And in the forward cast, with your 

 rod at that angle, ten to one you will recover it, 

 at least twenty degrees, in order to prevent the 

 line looping and falling with a great splash into 

 the water before your flies touch it. 



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