Fly Casting

( Originally Published 1912 )

HE mode of casting the artificial fly is something very different from that employed in casting a bait, for in this the light tuft of feathers and the little hook could not be expected to draw the line out through the guides, therefore the weight of line must do the work. It also differs from bait-casting in that the line is not cast from the reel; but is drawn from the reel by hand before making the cast. The method of fishing with a fly is also just the reverse of bait fishing, as you shall see later.

Since the manner of handling the tackle is so different it naturally suggests that the tackle employed must differ also, and so it does. The light, slender fly rod described in chapter two is used, and you will remember that the fly rod has the reel seat placed below the hand grasps and that a different style of reel is used. This reel may be either a single action click reel of rubber with metal bands around the side plates, or one of aluminum or German silver. An automatic reel may be used if preferred for this kind of fishing and this is the choice of a large number of fisher-men, but the smaller sizes should be selected as the larger ones are too heavy. The click reel should be attached with handle to the right.

The line should be thirty or thirty-five yards long and should be of the finest, enameled silk, size E for most use but the F size is much used, especially for light rods.

To the end of the line the gut leader is attached. It may be three feet long, with a single fly on the end (called a tail fly when used on end of leader) ; or it may be six feet long with a fly on the end and another (dropper fly) attached to the middle; or it may be nine feet long, with three flies, but this latter length is not used much for the ordinary fly fishing, as the knot catches in the tip when casting.

This is the outfit used for this, the fine art of fishing, and the modus operandi is as follows :

Grasping the rod in the right hand, reel down, and thumb extended on top of the grip, draw from the reel about twelve or fifteen feet of line, letting the slack fall to the ground at your feet, but holding onto the line with your left hand. Now point the rod out towards the place you want to cast to, say twenty-five or thirty feet away, and keeping the elbow close to the side, throw the tip of the rod upward to a vertical position, or perhaps back over the shoulder slightly, making this movement very quickly. If properly done the line shoots high up into the air and then stretches out behind, and just when it is fully stretched, make the forward cast, an easy, downward sweep of the rod, stopping it when it points out towards, but several yards above, the spot you want to cast to. As the line stretches out ahead of you at the end of this forward cast, release the line you have been holding and the momentum of the free line draws out the slack line that has been drawn from the reel.

To make the fly fall lightly on the water, and fall before the line does, elevate the tip of the rod gently just before the fly touches the water, also, to keep the fly from striking with a "spat," cast at a spot about a yard above the water.

The most difficult thing for the amateur to learn is just how long to pause after the back-cast before making the forward cast. This pause must be just long enough to let the line straighten out and pull gently on the rod tip. If you pause too long the line drops and strikes the ground or water, and if you make the forward cast before the line has straightened out you will snap the flies off the snell. An expert can feel the pull of the line on the rod tip, as the line straightens out behind, and the amateur can soon learn to wait for this. If you hear a sharp little snap behind you, you are not pausing long enough —you have made the forward cast before the line has straightened out.

Avoid throwing the rod too far past the perpendicular as you can never become a good caster as long as you do that. The rod should be carried little if any beyond the vertical line and the bend of the rod will usually be enough to give it some angle beyond. When your thumb on the grip points upward, stop. Also avoid a sudden stop at the termination of the forward cast, as it causes a double movement in the rod tip which spoils the cast, and do not release the line too quickly; it is better to wait until you feel a light pull, then release it.

But thirty feet is not a long cast and you may wonder how you are to reach more distant spots that you always thought could be reached by casting. To do so you simply make a second, a third, or even a fourth cast. With the length of your first cast out you draw a few yards more line from the reel and make another cast. It is made in the same manner as the first, except that with the longer line you must pause longer before making the forward cast. In fishing with an artificial bait we cast the longest distance possible and then reel in the bait. In fly fishing we fish the nearer water first and gradually lengthen the cast and reach other water, but even if you do not want to fish the nearer water, you must reach the extreme distance by a number of casts as described.

The beginner should learn first to cast accurately, and make the fly fall gently at the shorter distance, before trying to cast far. Even in fishing, accuracy and a light dropping of the fly count for more than distance, but both are points to strive for. When you have learned to cast easily at short distances you can try casting farther, and it is easier learned that way, also less likely to discourage the beginner.

You need not go fishing in order to learn casting you can learn it out on any smooth, level piece of ground. Select a place where the ground is covered with short grass so that the line will not be injured. Place your hat on the grass, or a newspaper, weighted with little stones on the corners. You don't need a leader or fly, just the bare line, but you can tie some small white object on the end, like a bit of white string, so that you can easily see where the end of the line falls.

Remember, the rod used has much to do with the casting in a way it is the rod that makes the cast, anyway the rod that has a lively spring no suggestion of weakness or slow action is the one that casts best. A long cast cannot be made with a very light rod, for with a light rod a light line must be used and the combination does not, spell distance. The expensive rods are best, but the amateur should not buy an expensive rod to learn casting with; he can use one after he becomes expert with the cheaper one. The fact that in tournament work, all of the longest casts have been made with split bamboo rods is significant.

This is the overhead method of casting the fly, and all fly fishers use it more than the other ways but the method is frequently varied by the different fishermen. Some, when they finish the forward cast, straighten out the arm, giving more force to the movement, and some make the complete cast by giving the rod a sweeping movement somewhat on the line of a horseshoe, making the back-cast over the left shoulder and the forward cast from the right. somewhat like a teamster cracks a long-lashed whip near the lead-team's ears. .

In addition to the overhead cast there is the side cast, which is made in the same way except that the rod is swept out at a level or nearly so from one side or the other, in-stead of vertically, as in the overhead cast. This cast is useful in fishing under overhanging trees, but such long casts cannot be made in this way.

Another way to cast a fly a short distance, especially good when fishing small streams where the brush overhang, is to hold the fly between the thumb and first finger of the left hand, and, pointing the rod out towards where you want to cast to, pull back on the fly to bend the rod tip back, then release the fly and the spring of the rod sends it out the length of the line.

Still another way of casting a fly that is quite popular and especially good where trees interfere with the over-head cast is what is called the roll cast.

Some line is drawn from the reel, as in the other methods, enough so that when the rod is raised to the perpendicular or a little beyond, the line will still rest on the water. Raise the rod as mentioned, slowly, until it points straight upward or a little back over the shoulder, then pause an instant so that the line stops in its dragging motion, and make a quick snappy forward and downward cast. This throws a high curve in the line, which rolls forward, lifting the leader and fly from the water, up over the curve and out beyond to the length of the line. At the end of each cast a few yards of line should be drawn from the reel, before making another cast and the distance will be extended in this way each time. This is a very good cast for the angler to learn. The fly may also be cast to either side in the same way.

The kind of casting to practice depends much on the nature of the water where your fishing is done. If you fish lakes and wide streams you should learn to make long casts, and learn to drop the flies gently, especially for still waters. If you fish mountain streams where the trout lurk below boulders, under logs and similar small spots of water, ac-curacy casting rather than distance casting should be practiced, also practice casting under logs and bunches of brush, over branches of trees that hang near the water, etc. For this kind of water it will pay to learn the side cast and roll cast well. Also, learn to cast with either hand.

Whether to cast up stream or down stream is a question that every angler must settle for himself; there are weighty points both for and against either method. To get down to the bottom of the question, it is the sight of the angler that alarms the fish, sending a trout scurring and causing a bass to turn slightly and watch the angler, both refusing to rise to the fly. Now a fish always lies with his head upstream, or with his nose to the current, and he can see straight ahead, to both sides, and quite an angle back of the direct transverse, some say to an angle on both sides of thirty degrees from the body line. Therefore to be in-visible, if standing out in the open, the angler must be be-hind the fish and inside of a section of the circumference of a circle comprising sixty degrees of same, with the fish for the center. From this vantage point the angler, if he does not splash or make too much commotion in the water, can approach quite close to a fish without being seen, and long casts are not needed. This is a great point in up-stream fishing. Another is that the mud or sand stirred up by the angler floats away behind him, into the water that has already been fished, and this will not alarm any prospective catch. The points against upstream casting are that the fish will not see the fly if it falls a little short, that the current instantly sweeps the fly towards the angler, after the cast, and in case of a rise the angler sometimes cannot strike quickly enough, or rather cannot recover the slack quickly enough to set the hook, and the fish never hook themselves as they often do when fishing down stream, where the current keeps the line taut at all times. Then again it is more difficult to wade up stream, and on small brooks you cannot float the fly under overhanging brush as you can by fishing down stream. Therefore, to the question: Is it best to fish up stream or down stream? The answer is, it depends on the kind of water you are fishing. Casting across stream, if there is any current, is a bad way, as the current catches the line and makes the fly act very unlifelike, and the angler cannot manipulate the fly properly. Another trouble is that you must make long casts or the fish will see you.

You must never cast a fly from a high bank, a bridge, or any other place above the water's level, for the fish will surely see you. You must keep out of sight at all times, and the only satisfactory way to fish with a fly, on wide streams, is to wade the water. When wading you are down low and less likely to be seen, and there is more room for your line in casting. On small streams you can stay on the bank but keep as far away from the water as practicable.

Our American way of fishing with the artificial fly is to keep the fly partly submerged, especially for black bass. It is known as wet fly fishing in distinction from the English way of fishing with small floating flies, or dry flies. Our way is perfectly satisfactory for bass fishing. and in fishing waters where the fish are not sought much, but experiments have proven beyond all doubt that dry fly fishing is a more killing way in trout waters that have been hard fished, as many large fish may be caught where the wet fly fishers cannot get a rise. For dry fly fishing the tiny dry flies, with bodies of cork or some other buoyant material, and only one fly is used. It is attached to a nine-foot, very fine single gut leader, and a tapered line. The flies are of the eyed kind so that there will be no knot or loop in the leader near the fly, the object being to cause the fly to fall on the water as naturally and quietly as a live insect, to fall before the leader, and for the latter to make no commotion. The fly must remain on the surface of the water just like a real insect, and must retain a life-like appearance and movement. The flies are dipped in an oily preparation to make them resist the water, and the line is rubbed with deer fat to make it float well. This method of fly fishing is being taken up in this country and is proving remarkably successful.

The method of casting the dry fly is exactly the same as casting the wet fly, except that the fly is not allowed to touch the water at the end of the cast but is retrieved while still ten or twenty feet above the water and the cast lengthened in this way, until the line reaches out to the place in view, when the fly is allowed to settle to the water.

Fly casting for salmon, with the two hand salmon rod is done in the same way as casting for trout and bass, except that both hands are used, and the hand that grasps the butt, usually the left, is used only as a pivot for the rod, and the movement of the rod is executed mainly with the right hand, which grasps the upper grip.

Fly fishing is the most refined, artistic, and sportsman like method of taking game fish any kind of fish that will rise to a fly — and is withal the most enjoyable. While, for some kinds of fish, it may not be as productive of results as some other kind of fishing, it is so much nicer in every way, so much more enjoyable, that it should be better understood by anglers in general. Black bass fishers especially, if not already acquainted with fly fishing, should give it some study. There are some anglers who do not even know that the black bass will take an artificial fly. For trout and salmon there is nothing like it, and there are other fishes also that will rise to a fly.