May, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
245 
gentle shakes of the rod are sufficient to 
unfasten the flies and little time is 
wasted. 
A common source of trouble for veteran 
and novice alike are overhanging trees 
and bushes. No matter how careful an 
angler he may be, sooner or later his 
flies are sure to become entangled in 
them. A glance will generally show that 
they are twisted over twigs and the 
hooks have caught the snells or leaders. 
The first impulse is to yank and swear, 
but no amount of pulling and hauling 
will free them. Shorten the line, keep- 
ing it fairly loose, then shake rapidly so 
as to vibrate the leader as much as pos- 
sible. As the leader jumps, the snells 
will dance about until the hooks are cast 
off, allowing the leader to be shaken free. 
In case the line has merely taken a half 
hitch over a stick it can usually be un- 
fastened by giving the rod a half cir- 
culating twist of the wrist, so as to throw 
the line back over the stick, casting off 
the hitch. 
1 As some of the most likely lurking 
places of trout are among the debris of 
spring freshets lodged in the pools it 
often happens that the hooks become 
caught in a log or on a protruding limb. 
By shaking the leader from side to side 
it acts as a lever on the shank of the 
hook, moving it back and forth until the 
point is loosened, when it will drop free. 
In spite of your most careful efforts 
there is sure to come a time when your 
flies become hopelessly entangled, and 
something must be broken. It is un- 
avoidable, and pull you must, so grasp 
the line as short as possible and pull 
straight and steadily toward you. 
Accuracy in judging distance enables 
the fly-caster to avoid many such pitfalls, 
but its vast importance in skilful angling 
will be more apparent to the novice when 
he comes to understand that success or 
failure in any comparatively quiet pool 
depends almost entirely upon his ability 
to drop his flies exactly where wanted. 
While this comes to be more or less in- 
voluntary with experience, the rudimen- 
tary principle of the feat is in knowing 
the approximate length of your tackle. 
For illustration, say the rod is eight and 
one-half feet long and the line is carried 
the length of the rod, counting the 
leader, then the reach is exactly seven- 
teen feet. But, suppose that the eye esti- 
mates the distance to be twenty-five feet, 
obviously the necessary eight feet of ad- 
ditional line must be drawn from the reel. 
If this pertinent fact is constantly borne 
in mind it is comparatively easy to attain 
a marked degree of proficiency in control 
without sacrifice of time or pleasure. 
N O matter how expert he may become, 
the novice must expect to loose 
many fine fish before he masters 
the knack of striking at the psychological 
instant. Nothing in trout fishing is more 
important. He must educate himself to 
give a sharp upward twist of the wrist, 
while any slack is held fairly taut, so 
that the act becomes an involuntary 
habit, performed without thinking. He 
cannot strike too quickly, particularly in 
rapid water. If the flies are taken away 
from the fish without pricking him the 
Fishing a bush bordered stream 
chances are that he will rise again, but 
if the strike is too slow he has a chance 
to perceive the cheat and eject it. This 
is done so quickly that the time it- takes 
is hardly measurable. 
In casting, the secret of dropping the 
flies within an inch of the desired place 
lies in manipulating the last few inches 
of the line as it settles towards the water. 
As a few feet of slack is invariably held 
in the left hand by good fishermen, a part 
of this line is paid out through the fingers 
in making the backward stroke, then 
more is let go as the flies dart toward 
their mark in the water. Naturally the 
eye follows the flies, and as the tail fly 
swings over the spot where the angler 
wants it to alight, the line is suddenly 
checked with the index finger of the right 
hand, under which it passes on its way 
to the rings, while a turn of the wrist 
from left to right elevates the rod and 
flips the flies gently to the water. 
To make the flies shoot across the 
water and settle exactly where wanted 
the eye and arm muscles must work in 
perfect harmony. The very quickest way 
to become skilful in this respect is to 
make every cast at a given object. Quite 
often the necessary skill comes suddenly, 
by a sort of intuition impossible to ex- 
plain, but, usually, like everything else 
worth while, it is the result of ardent toil. 
By observing this rule, season after sea- 
son, dexterity in manipulation becomes a 
matter of habit that catches fish where 
others fail. 
There is always just as much danger 
in becoming fast in retrieving the line as 
in making the delivery, so it is just as 
important to gauge the back cast accur- 
ately as it is the forward. A quick glance 
over the shoulder will enable the angler 
to avoid intervening obstructions in mak- 
ing his back cast. It some cases it must 
be low on account of the protruding 
branches of trees; more frequently it 
must be high in order to clear the ground 
and low bushes. Sooner or later a high 
bank of bushes will be encountered which 
will necessitate a short back cast and ad- 
ditional line must be paid out on delivery. 
Another situation which is sure to pre- 
sent itself is one which renders the back 
cast impossible. With deep water in 
front and a high bank, ledge or willow 
tangle at his back, the angler is forced 
to resort to the switch cast to place his 
flies. 
In making this cast he either allows 
his line to stretch full length down 
stream, or first casts it up stream. The 
rod is elevated to bring as much of the 
line out of the water as possible, then 
with a quick up and down flip the angler 
throws the line clear, at the same time 
bringing it towards him. Immediately 
the casting arm is brought into the usual 
position, except that the elbow is held 
slightly away from the body, and a strong 
forward cast is made, sending the line 
far out over the water, where the same 
old elevation of the rod tip drops the flies 
where wanted. 
It is not uncommon for the banks of a 
trout stream to change a dozen times 
within a half mile. For a hundred rods 
the angler may fish a succession of rifts 
and pools that present little, or no diffi- 
culty. Then in stepping over a fence 
marking a pasture boundary he encoun- 
ters a stretch of deep, still water, half 
hidden by high banks and a dense fringe 
of low bushes. He is reasonably sure 
that big trout lie securely hidden where 
they can see every insect that drops on 
the surface. And so they do. But the 
high bank also places the angler at a 
disadvantage. He is so far above the 
water that the trout seldom fail to note 
his presence, and, if they do he can rest 
assured that there will be no sudden swirl 
and spindle of breaking water to gladden 
his heart. 
The secret of fishing such stretches of 
still water successfully is to make the 
flies strike the surface gently. It is an 
extremely difficult task to make a long 
cast and drop the flies without a splash 
or riffling the surface with a yard or two 
of heavy line. 
When such a piece of angling confronts 
the old timer he resorts to the loop cast. 
This differs from the usual cast in that 
the line strikes the water doubled in a 
loop just behind the leader. The force 
of the impact projects the leader upward 
and outward in a graceful curve, allowing 
the flies to settle gently to the water eight 
or ten feet further on. No matter 
whether the length of the cast be fifty or 
seventy-five feet, the flies will alight on 
the surface as naturally as though they 
had dropped from a bush overhead. 
When precautions have been taken to 
pick out an unnoticeable spot for the loop 
to strike, such, for example, as a log, a 
stone, a bit of foam or shallow water, 
there is no more deadly cast known in 
the practice of fly-casting, if properly 
made and the satisfaction of making it 
properly brings joy to the Angler’s heart. 
(continued on page 268 ) 
