28 
A HANDY GUIDE TO 
EXERCISE X. 
TO CAST A DRY FLY DOWN-STREAM. 
You may now proceed to practise the still more 
difficult art of casting the dry fly downstream : for 
sometimes the greatest devotee of up-stream fishing 
is obliged, from various circumstances that he will 
meet with, so to fish. 
To do this, you must not, as in up-stream fishing, 
cast with a straight-out and comparatively taut line, 
but you must endeavour when you cast the line 
forward to drag it gently back and up ere the fly falls : 
and aim at a spot in the water some three yards 
short of the full length of your line (or if at a rising 
fish measure your length accordingly) lowering the 
point of your rod as it falls. 
This will cause the line to be a little wavy and 
loose, and thus the fly will be able to float down the 
stream for some yards dry, without any check ; 
whereas if you cast it fully forward the fly will stop 
where it alights, and drag, and this, of course, would 
make any fish perceive its unnaturalness at once. 
In rough water or in rapid streams this is not of 
