FOREST AND STREAM 
751 
The Galway Cast With a Double-Handed Salmon Rod—After the Back Cast Has Been Made and 
After the Body Has Turned Forward Again, But Before the Right Foot Has Been 
Brought Forward. 
simply looking at the inserted cuts, where he 
is shown in the act of casting with the two dif¬ 
ferent rods. 
This “rigid wrist” method, however, although 
it has been tried, is not the one in general use 
in this country by anglers when trout fishing 
with a single-handed rod. And we, who use the 
“flexible wrist action” in casting (which method 
has been used now these many years with most 
efficient results) will be, I fear, very loathe to 
make a change and admit that our method is 
wrong per se, even after reading understanding- 
ly that most lucid, interesting and instructive 
chapter, entitled, “Mental Control of the Muscles 
When Learning to Cast.” 
In this enlightened age who can tell? It may 
be that after all Mr. Shaw’s method of “rod 
control” involves a basic principle hitherto un¬ 
discovered; and which is far superior to the gen¬ 
erally accepted principle of the one now in use 
and that we are mistaken in our position. Should 
time prove such to be the case, American anglers 
will, I feel certain, gracefully acknowledge it 
and in a spirit of real sportsmanship. 
I note that Mr. Shaw follows very closely 
along the line of other English writers when 
speaking of the wet and the dry fly method of 
fishing, when he says: 
“Many excellent fishermen confine their fishing 
to either the wet or dry fly method, but while 
the most successful fisherman generally will be 
he who is in reality the master of both, there 
can be no question as to which method of fishing 
requires the greater skill or affords the more de¬ 
lightful and interesting pastime.” 
Perhaps there is “no question” in England as 
to the real merits of the two different methods 
of fly fishing but in this country there is a “de¬ 
cided question and a logically established con¬ 
viction,” that neither method is the superior of 
the other but that both require great skill and 
that, here as in England, the “tail does not wag 
the dog.” In the chapter on “Wet Fly Fishing, 
etc.,” under the heading “Striking” I find the 
following: 
“In wet fly fishing up-stream the fly at which 
the fish rises is near the surface. The motion of 
the fish, or perhaps the fish itself, can be seen, 
and the strike may, therefore, be made either at 
the time the rise is seen or the touch felt. When, 
however, the fly is well below the surface, as in 
wet fly fishing downstream, the first intimation 
the fisherman gets that a trout has taken one of 
his flies is the pluck or pull at the fly. In most 
cases this pluck in itself is quite sufficient to 
hook the fish, and, therefore, in so many as eight 
out of ten, the hooking of a fish with a wet fly 
down-stream cannot be claimed as being due to 
any skill or quickness in striking; while in at 
least eight cases out of ten the fish hooked with 
a dry fly or wet fly up-stream may be fairly 
claimed by the angler as due to his skill in strik¬ 
ing. An immediate strike when the fly is taken 
by the fish below the surface of the water is 
seldom advisable; and equally is it true that an 
immediate strike is in nearly every case advis¬ 
able if the fly be taken when floating on the sur¬ 
face.” 
If this is a correct statement about the meth¬ 
ods and results of striking trout on English 
waters, and I have no reason to question it for 
a moment, then in a great measure American 
anglers can understand why dry fly fishing in 
England is considered to possess superior skill 
and, therefore, is a more “delightful and inter¬ 
esting pastime.” Such, however, is not the feel¬ 
ing among the great majority of anglers in this 
country, who are wet fly anglers: and this in¬ 
cludes as well the anglers who use both methods. 
It is undoubtedly because here the skilled and 
experienced wet fly anglers do not fish their fly 
or flies “well below the surface” nor do they 
delay the strike until a fish has plucked or pulled 
their lure. One of our most noted wet fly ang¬ 
lers, Henry P. Wells, very aptly said when speak¬ 
ing of striking trout many years ago: “Not that 
the angler is to rely in the slightest degree on 
feeling the fish; his eye, and his eye alone, is his 
guide.” 
There also is another reason why wet fly fish¬ 
ing in America differs from that of England. 
Here, as I have already stated, our native trout 
is Salvelinus fontinalis while in England the 
native trout is Salmo-fario and for this reason 
alone the method of striking must be different 
if success is to follow the angler’s efforts. This 
is made almost imperative because all salmo 
trout, like the salmon, having taken a fly, 
whether submerged or on the surface, hold on 
to it for a perceptible length of time; while on 
the other hand Salvelinus trout expel or eject 
the fly instantly. 
With the possible exception of one point, the 
correct way to handle a single-handed rod, Amer¬ 
ican anglers will appreciate that such differences 
as exist between our methods and those across 
the water are due almost entirely to conditions 
and the species of trout peculiar to each country. 
This new book for fly fishing anglers is a most 
valuable one, both from the practical as well as 
the scientific standpoint, and all anglers who 
have any desire to improve their art cannot af¬ 
ford to be without a copy. It contains twenty- 
one chapters, an appendix and index; also one 
colored plate, sixty-one plates in black and white 
and twenty-nine diagrams. Of the twenty-one 
chapters, eleven are devoted to Trout Fishing 
and the use of the Single-handed Rod, seven to 
Salmon Fishing and the Double-handed Rod, one 
to Trout and Grayling, one to New Zealand as a 
Fishing Ground and one to Fishing in Canada. 
The chapters on salmon are especially fine, in¬ 
teresting and instructive and can be accepted 
without reservation by anglers as the very best 
that has been written instructively about this 
noble fish. Although no chapter lacks interest 
I would call the attention of my brother anglers, 
and particularly the younger contingent, to the 
chapters entitled, “The Senses of Trout and How 
They Affect the Fisherman,” and “Axioms, 
Notes and Theories, Grayling Fishing.” 
The Galway Cast With a Double-Handed Salmon Rod—After the Body Has Turned Away from the 
Water and Before the Right Foot Has Been Brought Forward. 
