Tailed, and with which I have been struggling for 

 the past twenty years. Very little force is 

 needed not nearly so much, even in very long 

 casts, is needed as one would imagine. I have 

 seen a salmon-angler, who should have known 

 better, use as much force in casting a line thirty 

 feet as he would in casting sixty feet; yet he can- 

 not understand why in the short cast his fly some- 

 tinies jumps backward and lands five feet this side 

 of the spot intended, and why, in the backward 

 cast, the tip of his rod hits Hill on top of the 

 head as he sits in the bow of the canoe, unconscious 

 of any danger, looking for logs coming down the 

 river. But Bill certainly knew his man the next 

 trip, for I saw him lying flat on his stomach, duck- 

 ing his head on the back cast, bobbing it up on the 

 forward, "An eye up-stream for those derned 

 logs," as he expressed it, the other on the " strong 

 man." "Quite a busy day," be remarked to my 

 canoeman, as we were passing, " and lucky it 's 

 cold ! No stiikes yet, but I guess some one will get 

 one before we get through ! n 



You should be able to cast equally well from 

 either shoulder, without changing the position of 

 the hands upon the rod. The right usually grasps 

 the rod above the reel, with the left below. This 

 is the position of nearly all anglers when casting 

 from the right shoulder, whether the line is thrown 

 in a direction diagonally to the right, straight away, 



33 



