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Before you cast, make a few practice swings. Stand comfortably, relaxed, facing the target. Put your right foot slightly forward. With your eyes and mind fixed on a spot 2 feet above the target, make a few overhead swings with your rod through a 75-degree arc, from 10 o'clock to 12:30 and 12:30 to 10, without stopping the rod at the upward position. If you stop at the 12:30 position more than a moment, you will lose the power that is built up and compressed into the flexed rod during that backward drive. Now work this forward. backward action into a rhythmical, pendulum-like swing, coming back fairly fast, driving forward faster, and stopping the forward power application near 10 o'clock, yet drifting through to 9:30 o'clock with your follow-through for accuracy. Now, do it again, but pause this time just an instant on the back swing to give the lure slightly more time to straighten out behind you and pull on the rod. Keep at it until this action comes easily out of your wrist, smoothly and naturally. 5 Figure 5 Before making your first cast, experiment with your friction drag on the reel until it is set exactly right, slightly below the breaking point of your weakest knot. When fishing with that line and knots, never change your setting. Trust your friction drag implicitly unless the fish makes an unusually long run, then release it slightly to compensate for the line drag You've got it. Good. Let's begin casting. (See Figures 7 to 9.)
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