IN THE BEGINNING 9 
ship whose articles most of us feel we have not 
yet served. I do not of course underrate the 
importance of other necessary details, but I think 
that the most essential matter for the beginner 
with the fly-rod, ambitious to take trout, is to 
learn the rules of casting and follow them. Let 
me expand the instruction a little. 
(1) Pause between the casts, without letting 
the line touch the ground; or, if “a pause 
between the casts”’ conveys the sense of some- 
thing awkward, put it to yourself in another way: 
make up your mind to re-start the forward cast 
precisely when you realize that you have got the 
line and gut out well behind you. Moreover, 
just as a cricket bat which is made by the batsman 
to drive a ball has therefore to do its duty as 
part of the combination, so must your fly-rod be 
allowed to do its share of the work. A well-built 
rod will respond to all reasonable demands, and 
it pays to have a good one. With a rod of cheap 
material and inferior workmanship, the top piece 
is very liable to come to grief if and when the 
inexperienced hand strikes too hard at a rising 
trout or catches up in herbage, etc., behind. 
(2) Keep the body still, The youthful 
beginner is apt at first to flick his flies off. The 
error is corrected by experience, in which the fact 
that flies nowadays cost about threepence each 
plays its part. When first starting to practise 
throwing the fly, the beginner can wisely use fly- 
rod and line only, that is, without any gut. The 
addition of a cast, and later on, of a fly, and then 
