CASTING 6i 



So far almost every word of this chapter would 



apply equally to wet and to dry- 

 Drying the fly. fly methods of casting. Drying 



the fly consists in returning and 

 casting several times in succession without letting the 

 fly fall on the water in front and, of course, keeping 

 it up off the ground behind. The use of paraffin to 

 render the fly waterproof or nearly waterproof has 

 appreciably decreased the labour involved in drying 

 the fly. Above all, the dry-fly man must keep his 

 fly free from any moisture, so that it will float when 

 it lands on the surface of the stream. There is no 

 such thing known as a half-way house between dry 

 and wet-fly fishing ; either the fly is floating, in which 

 case it is dry-fly fishing, or it is more or less sub- 

 merged, and is wet-fly fishing. 



Where there are impediments on the banks behind 



the angler the wet-fly man 

 Dry switch. casts what is called a switch ; 



this means that in returning 

 the fly and while it is on the water in front of him 

 it is cast with a sort of downward finish, and if all 

 is accurately timed it will be propelled by the weight 

 of the line from the water, and therefore at no part 

 of the cast be behind the fisherman. Obviously this 

 is impracticable with the dry-fly, but the fly may be 

 dried up and downstream, and as the cast is made 

 the hand turned over towards the point to which it is 

 intended to direct the fly. Again the fly can be dried 

 anywhere where there is space or even wiped with a 



