98 SCIENCE OF FISHING. 



his elbow down to the hip and points his rod to the right, 

 the bait down almost against the water. Then without turn- 

 ing his body he turns his head so that he can see the place 

 he wants to cast to, (A) and with a steady sweeping move- 

 ment he swings his right forearm across in front of his 

 body, to the left, and upward, until the rod points upward 

 at about a twenty-five degree angle and an angle of thirty 

 degrees from the line of his shoulders; this is the end of 

 the cast. Just before reaching this point the pressure on 

 the reel spool is eased up, the thumb pressure almost re- 

 moved, and the momentum of the bait drags the line from 

 the reel, the bait traveling outward and upward for quite 

 a distance, then curving downward to the water. 



Diagram Sho . ing Bait Side Car-t. 



But the pressure on the spool mui,c not be entirely re- 

 leased, unless it is one of the self '^numbing kind, or the 

 reel will run so fast "hat it winds the line back the other 

 way, bringing the bait up with a jerk and tangling the line. 

 This is called a back-lash and the back-lashes cause the 

 amateur more trouble than everything else combined. To 

 learn to control this pressure so that it is not so hard 

 that it hinders the spool in movement, and yet hard enough 

 to prevent a back-lash, is the great secret of bait-casting. It 

 takes months of practice usually, and some persons are so 

 constituted that .hey can never become good casters. 



The mover. ent of the rod, already described, is simple 

 enough and easily learned, but that it may be more easily 

 understood I will try to describe it in another way. The rod 



