THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 153 



for the psychological moment to place the fly on the 

 water. 



Marryat used to say that the great secret of rising a 



trout with the dry-fly is to com- 



Marryat on the first bine accuracy and delicacy at 



cast. the first cast. When indulging 



in his best epigrammatic style 

 he summed up the proposition in something like the 

 following terms. He said that if the calculated odds 

 are three to one against a fish rising to the fly at the 

 first cast provided it comes accurately and without 

 drag over the spot where the trout is rising, at the 

 second cast it is ten to one, and at the third or any 

 subsequent cast it is at least fifty to one. 



How often does this successful combination of light- 

 ness and precision come off at 

 Policy of making the ^^^ g^^^ ^^^ p j^ j. j^^g 



first cast short of . , i , 1 



. ^ . great judgment to be able to 



let out precisely the length of 



line required to cover the fish under all conditions 



of light and shade or wind and calm. If at the first 



attempt the fly is placed too far above the fish so that 



a considerable length of gut and possibly even part of 



the coarser and more visible reel line is shown to 



it, its suspicions may well be roused ; and if it is at 



all shy, it will certainly be set down or so effectually 



scared as to beat a hasty retreat. To obviate the 



possibility of overcasting it has become the custom 



among the majority of modern dry-fly men to let out 



designedly such a length of line for the first cast as 



