CHAPTER IV
How to Cast the Floating Fly
The sportsman who has fished only with the wet fly may rest assured that should he take up dry fly fishing he will discover a renewed interest in the sport of fly fishing for trout, which, perhaps, through custom, may have lost something of its former charm. Moreover, in dry fly fishing he will find a sport of such wide scope that, it is safe to say, he will never consider himself other than a beginner in the art. For the scientifically inclined sportsman—the man who chronically seeks to know the "reason why"—it is difficult to name any outdoor recreation which would prove more to his liking or more worthy of serious research and study in its various branches, particularly that dealing with the entomology of the trout stream.
In photographic work most people are perfectly willing to "follow the directions," trusting that the results will be good enough, and caring little for intimate knowledge of the scientific details of the various processes which produce the completed photograph. This, certainly, is not at all the state of mind with which to take up dry fly fishing, or, for that matter, angling of any sort. In fact, the dry fly man should be a student of causes as well as of effects, for the simple reason that only in comparatively rare instances can the desired effect be produced unless the angler knows the underlying cause and proceeds to utilize it practically. This is particularly true of the selection and manipulation of the floating fly and, in a lesser but quite considerable degree, of casting the fly.
Almost every book on angling contains a more or less understandable treatise on fly-casting, and it is only for the benefit of the virtual beginner at fly-fishing for trout, and further with a view to completeness and the emphasizing of certain points which even the old hand is prone to forget or possibly neglect through carelessness that the following brief explanation is incorporated here. Casting the floating fly differs little essentially from the manner of casting the sunken fly; in detail, however, the difference is very great.
Casting the floating fly divides naturally into two quite distinct phases; first, the actual cast which places the fly, cocked and floating, upon the surface of the stream; second, the subsequent manipulation of the fly in such a manner that its action approximates with all possible fidelity the action of the natural fly—the fly must float in the exact manner of the natural fly under like circumstances. Granting judicious selection of the fly in the first instance and some skill and finesse in placing it, it is with the correct action of the fly—after all the most important thing in the whole art of dry fly fishing—that the sportsman has chiefly to deal, and the dealing is not always of the easiest.
It should go without saying that properly and effectively to cast and fish the floating fly it is essential that the tackle be correctly assembled. In this regard I believe the point most in need of emphasis is the question of the right way to fit the reel to the rod; that this should be done so that the reel is underneath the rod with its handle to the right (in the case of the right-handed caster) is in my experience the only satisfactory and thoroughly efficient way. With the reel thus placed it is never necessary, when playing a fish, to turn the rod over so that the reel is above, as in the case when the reel is fitted to the rod with the handle to the left. After a fish is struck, if it becomes necessary to use the reel, the rod is simply shifted to the left hand—without the awkward necessity of turning it over to bring the reel on top—and the fingers of the right hand fall naturally upon the handle of the reel.
Of the English books on the subject of dry fly fishing I have seen only those of Mr. Halford. In "Dry Fly Fishing," by this author, the cut illustrating the proper grip of the rod shows the reel rigged underneath the rod with its handle to the left, and this is the method advised by the author. It may be said with certainty that this manner of assembling rod and reel is not sanctioned by the majority of American fly-fishermen.