The length of my own favourite salmon and trout rods are seventeen and eleven feet respectively, but many people recommend a length of not over fourteen for the former, as a woman's strength is so much less than a man's.
Dropper and Cast.
My own experience is, that in casting against a strong wind, a stiffish rod of eighteen feet is quite within my powers, so much depending on the balance of the whole apparatus, the size of the reel and weight of the butt. In quiet weather my "Castle Connell," a foot less in length and much more supple was very satisfactory.
Marvellous tales are told of long casts, but personally I have found sixty feet or thereabouts to be the length of my tether, at least so far as a satisfactory performance is concerned. This distance is usually quite enough for all practical purposes, and it will be some time before the angler can be certain of dropping his fly lightly and surely on a given spot, even at forty feet.
Women should practise casting on lawns without a cast at the end of their lines, as, when the fly is on, a novice has been known to hook swallows and even inquisitive puppy-dogs. The "Spey" cast should be studied as well as the ordinary method, the former being most useful where there are high branches or rocks just behind the place where the angler must stand.
The "Spey" cast consists in so switching the line that it shoots out direct to the required spot without ever passing behind the angler's head, while in the more ordinary method, the great secret is to send the line right out at the back, and then with a dexterous turn of the wrist to bring it forward. By raising the tip of the rod slightly just before the fly touches the water, it will fall into its position in a light and natural manner. Casting requires great care and patience in practising, and many a time the beginner may find her flies firmly embedded in her own back hair, instead of speeding swiftly through the air to where the fish lies.
In casting a line either for salmon or trout it should be noted that fish always lie with their heads up-stream, and that it is therefore necessary to stand some distance above where they are supposed to be, and cast across the water so that the fly may fall delicately and gently, without the least splash, a little above their noses. It cannot be too often repeated that, in fishing for trout, the great art is not to be seen. The angler must therefore stand well back from the bank, hide behind trees and bushes and crouch in hollows. Above all, it is absolutely essential that the figure should never be seen against the sky. She must keep her face to the sun, that her shadow may not fall on the water, throwing her fly first of all under the near bank and then by successive casts across the stream.
The salmon cast is naturally a longer and slower movement than that which is used for trout, but in both instances it is often well to allow the fly to sink a little before beginning to play it. For salmon the line should be drawn gently and with successive movements of the wrist up-stream and across the space which intervenes between the spot where the fly has fallen and that at which the angler stands. The trout cast is much more rapid, and the playing should be across and down stream as well as up, the movements of the wrist being much lighter and more varied. In both cases, when a fish is felt, a "strike" should be made, at least, authorities, to whom I am bound to bow, insist on this ceremony. Personally I believe that the fish, by this sharp turn of the wrist, is as often lost as hooked, unless care be taken to chose the actual moment when he has closed his jaws upon it. I have seen a fly pulled right out of a salmon's mouth, and have been told by those looking on and instructing me that I had done that same thing myself, when I merely intended to strike. My impression is, therefore, that the novice had better let her salmon hook themselves, which they will certainly do if they come well at the fly.