H2 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



shoulder, releasing the fly as he does so ; when he has reason 

 to suppose that the fly line is fairly extended behind him, he 

 must bring it forward again with a slight outward sweep so 

 that the fly may not double too sharply back or crack. If he 

 does not give sufficient time for the line to extend itself, and 

 if he makes the return too directly, he will probably hear a 

 slight pop behind ; if he does so a trifle more quickly and 

 directly, the pop will become a crack, and then he will know 

 that his fly is reposing peacefully in the long grass behind him, 

 while his line, guiltless of a lure, is extended on the surface 

 of the water. Some people who make the return very directly 

 always pop their flies. The sound is a most unpleasant one 

 to a neat fisherman, as at every pop the gut at the head of 

 the fly is more or less cracked and broken, until at last the 

 fly bangs by a sort of pulp, the hard surface of the gut being 

 altogether destroyed. The angler may make the curve or 

 sweep I have spoken of either on the inside or outside. The 

 outside is the easiest to the novice, and the throw will be the 

 more neatly made. To the experienced hand, the one is as 

 easy as the other. By the outside sweep, I mean that the 

 rod is waved backwards, say, six inches or so from the ear, 

 and is then brought forward some six inches farther from it ; 

 in the inside sweep this is of course reversed, the line being 

 cast back about fourteen or fifteen inches from the ear and 

 returned forward at about six or eight inches. In Plate VI, 

 Fig. 4, page 93, the diagram shows the direction the rod- 

 point is supposed to travel over, as regards the head of the 

 angler, which may be seen beside it. Now, in bringing the fly 

 forward, the angler should fix his eye upon the spot he desires 

 to cast towards, and endeavour to make the hand second 

 the eye by urging the point of the rod towards it ; there 

 should be no jerking ; the forward motion should be a little 

 swifter than the backward one. When the point of the rod 

 has reached an angle of about 45, the motion should be 

 checked or eased, so as to gradually check the line and let it 

 fall lightly on the water. If this be not done, or a sort of 

 forward cut be made, as though the angler were chopping at 

 the opposite bank with his rod, the line is cast clean and hard 

 down into the water and the flies make a splash. This may 

 be requisite in very windy weather, particularly if the wind be 

 adverse, but in such circumstances light throwing is of less 

 consequence, as the water will probably be rough, and the 

 only object is to get the line out at all. If the angler follows 



