Salmon-fishing Casting the Fly. 119 



natural and constrained position indicates that something 

 must be wrong about it too. If sitting, he finds not even 

 this faint shadow of encouragement. The butt of the 

 rod is as constantly in the way as is a sword to him who 

 for the first time tries to dance with one by his side and 

 moreover it kicks like a mule. 



The path may be longer or shorter, and it may be more 

 or less thorny, but it leads to this at last. He now grasps 

 the rod with the lower hand at the extreme end of the 

 butt. He makes this the centre of motion instead of his 

 upper hand, and moves the latter hand to conform thereto. 

 The rod at once abandons its vicious demeanor, and ceases 

 to kick, since the kicking part is held still; and lo ! the 

 problem is solved. 



If he who is accustomed to flyfishing for trout with a 

 single-handed rod will but bear this principle in mind, 

 he may look forward with confidence to handling a sal- 

 mon-rod at his first effort, with little or no embarrass- 

 ment as far as casting is concerned. 



. Nor is this all of benefit to be had from this method of 

 handling the rod. Upon no one point in the use of the 

 single-handed rod is there a more complete concord of 

 opinion, than that both hands should be educated to 

 handle the rod with equal facility and skill. Every in- 

 structor, whether in print, at home, or in the field, strives 

 to impress this upon the beginner. The more deficient 

 the instructor himself may be in this respect through de- 

 fective early training, the greater his appreciation of the 

 accomplishment, and the more urgent his recommenda- 

 tion. 



The ability to handle a salmon-rod with either hand 

 above the reel, if not the exact counterpart of this, dif- 



