THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE LATE MR. H. G. MC-CLELLAND 
 
 ("ATHENIAN.")
 
 THE TROUT FLY DRESSER'S 
 CABINET OF DEVICES 
 
 OB 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES 
 
 FOB 
 
 TROUT AND GRAYLING FISHING. 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 H. a. MCCLELLAND 
 
 (" Athenian " of the " Fishing Gazette"). 
 
 WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 OFFICES OF THE " FISHING GAZETTE, 
 19, ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, STRAND, W.C. 
 
 1919. 
 
 All Rights Rtserved.
 
 FIBST PUBLISHED, 1898. 
 SECOND EDITION, 1905. 
 THIRD EDITION, 1909. 
 FOURTH EDITION, 1919.
 
 , 
 M/37C 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 (From the Fishing Gazette, July 23, 1898.) 
 
 THE LATE ME. HARRY G. McCLELLAND. 
 ("ATHENIAN," OF THE Fishing Gazette). 
 
 As promised in a footnote to the graceful little 
 tribute to his memory, which I published last 
 week, from " Val Conson," I now give a 
 portrait* of "Athenian," whose articles on 
 " Trout Fly Dressing " have been appearing in 
 the Fishing Gazette at intervals during the past 
 fifteen months or so. The series was so nearly 
 complete that he had written part of the last 
 article, with a sadly double meaning in its title, 
 viz., " Parting Observations and Hints." 
 
 Having been struck with the novelty, sound- 
 ness, and originality of letters on fly dressing 
 which appeared in these columns from "Athenian," 
 I, two or three years ago, invited him to do a 
 series of illustrated articles on the subject, and 
 he took the matter up with great enthusiasm. 
 I never had the pleasure to meet " Athenian," 
 but live in hopes of meeting him and many other 
 keen anglers on the banks of good streams in the 
 next world. But I had a long and pleasant cor- 
 respondence with " Athenian," and always found 
 him most courteous, and ready to fall in with 
 
 * The portrait forms the frontispiece of this little Tolume. 
 B. B. M. 
 
 908711
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 suggestions. His articles were eagerly looked for 
 by all who take more than a superficial interest 
 in fly dressing, and certainly deserve the very 
 high praise given them by " Val Conson," than 
 whom there is no better judge living, and I 
 cannot do better than reproduce his note here. 
 
 DEATH OF "ATHENIAN." 
 
 DEAR MARSTON. You have doubtless received from 
 the family of the contributor who wrote in your pages 
 over the singularly appropriate name of " Athenian " 
 the announcement of his death. It was only in corre- 
 spondence, both private and in your columns, I had to 
 do with him ; but I should like to say this, that in him 
 the art of fly dressing has lost, at a very early age, 
 probably the most prolific, ingenious, and inventive 
 intellect of the century. He was always eager to hear 
 and to tell some new thing, and the new thing he told 
 was nearly always of his own discovery. In controversy 
 he was always a fair and courteous opponent, and as a 
 correspondent he was generous to a degree in his com- 
 munication of what he thought would interest or help. 
 
 Thus, though I never had the pleasure of meeting 
 him, his early death touches me with a sense of per- 
 sonal loss, in.which you, I feel sure, will share, and 
 I should like, as one of the many readers of the Fishing 
 Gazette who has had the benefit of perusing his singu - 
 larly clear and exhaustive contributions, to testify . 
 through your columns, to those he leaves behind him 
 how warmly we appreciated him and how sincerely we 
 deplore his lo*s. Very truly yours, 
 
 VAL CONSON. 
 
 It was Sunday, July 3, 1898, that my corre- 
 spondent died ; and his brother, Mr. Herbert S. 
 McClelland, in sending me the news on July 7, 
 said : 
 
 " My dear brother, who has been writing under 
 the name of ' Athenian ' in your paper, passed 
 away on Sunday last. It is exactly six years 
 since he and I came home from school, before the
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 end of the term, owing to the illness which 
 attacked his lungs, and rendered him very weak 
 and unfit for work, though at times, sometimes 
 for months, he rallied in a wonderful way, and 
 looked and felt quite well. About a fortnight 
 ago, when he realised that he was dying, he 
 asked that I shoiild write to you and send the 
 part of his last article which he had written, 
 together with some notes intended to be embodied 
 in it, and request you to get it finished for him, 
 and have it published in the Fishing Gazette, so 
 that when you published the series of articles in 
 book form, as arranged, this one might appear 
 also." 
 
 Of course, I was glad to promise that this 
 should be done, and hope that " Val Conson " will 
 kindly add the few words that are all that seem 
 necessary to complete the chapter. 
 
 During my long connection with this paper, 
 the only sad part of it has been this recording 
 the loss of friends and contributors. It is doubly 
 sad when the record is of a bright young fellow 
 cut off " just when the doors of manhood were 
 opening to him. . . . Like the flowers which 
 covered his coffin, his young life exhaled a 
 fragrance that will linger long in the hearts of 
 those who knew him best." 
 
 What we fly fishers have lost in him has been 
 well and truly said in the letter I have quoted 
 above from " Val Conson." 
 
 R. B. MABSTON 
 
 (Editor, Fishing Gaxette).
 
 NOTE TO THE FOUR1H EDITION. 
 
 This iiew edition was to have been published 
 iu August, 1914, but the War necessitated 
 
 postponement until now. 
 
 R. B. M. 
 June 16, 1919. 
 
 NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 It is satisfactory proof of the interest in 
 amateur fly-tying to find that a third edition 
 of Mr. McClelland's work has been called 
 
 for. 
 
 R. B. M. 
 
 September 14. 1909. 
 
 NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 This little work having been quite out of 
 print and scarce for some years, and many 
 inquiries for it coming to hand, I decided to 
 issue another edition, in which a few verbal 
 
 corrections have been made. 
 
 R. B. M. 
 February 4, 1905.
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES 
 
 FOB 
 
 TROUT AND GRAYLING FISHING. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT is, perhaps, unnecessary that I should here 
 dwell on the advantages which a knowledge of fly 
 dressing gives to the angler, since it is to be 
 expected that they are already known and felt 
 by those who read these lines. At the same time 
 such a course seems natural, and with the 
 reader's pardon its adoption gets me out of 
 the difficulty of knowing how to open up my 
 subject. 
 
 Every angler for trout will admit that the 
 qualities which go to make one successful in his 
 craft are judgment, skill, and knowledge of the 
 trout's habits and powers, and of the insects on 
 which he feeds ; and are not these the very 
 qualities which go to make a successful fly 
 dresser, and which are developed in the practice 
 of the art ? It is true that fly fishing and fly 
 dressing each require a fair amount of manipula- 
 tive skill proper to themselves ; but they are at 
 least so closely connected that a man, with some 
 practical knowledge of the one, will have many 
 advantages on his aide when entering on the 
 other not only utilitarian advantages, either. 
 B
 
 BOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 but those also which will give him a keener 
 enjoyment in the pursuit of both pastimes. 
 
 Fly dressing, unlike the making of rods, reels, 
 and other articles of the angler's equipment, is 
 no mere branch of other crafts. It would be 
 obviously unreasonable to expect that all anglers 
 should acquire these latter accomplishments, 
 especially having regard to the lasting nature of 
 the articles named. At the same time it should not 
 be forgotten that it is to those who combine manu- 
 facture with use and use with manufacture 
 whether as professionals or no that we owe 
 almost all the improvements that have been made 
 in the implements of our sport. 
 
 In the study of river entomology, the great 
 importance of which is acknowledged by all who 
 follow the higher branches of angling, fly dressing 
 is almost as useful as dissecting is in the study of 
 anatomy. The manner in which it stimulates the 
 angler's appreciation of the form and colour of 
 the insects with which he is concerned will soon 
 become apparent to all who practise it. And, 
 finally, it may be said that, if the angler is not 
 a fly dresser, the fly which he uses will not in six 
 cases out of ten be the true expression of his 
 ideas as to what it should really be. And surely, 
 with a man so sensitive to detail as your modern 
 angler, this argument should have considerable 
 weight. 
 
 I remember some years back reading an article 
 by the Rev. J. G-. Wood, in which he shows the 
 difficulty of accurately describing any of nature's 
 colours. It was, I think, entitled, " Of what 
 Colour is a Dandelion ? " and may be read in 
 "Out of Doors." The difficulty of which he 
 speaks is one which continually besets the angler 
 in ordering his flies, but which may be, to a great 
 extent though not wholly removed by his 
 learning to dress them for himself. It may even
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be considerably modified by his acquiring a good 
 knowledge of the material used in making flies, 
 which, with the entomological knowledge that he 
 already possesses, will carry him more than half 
 way through the task that the beginner who 
 aspires further has to face. 
 
 I could say a great deal about the enjoyment, 
 the artistic enjoyment, if I may be permitted so 
 to call it, which is to be derived from fly dressing ; 
 but, then, my remarks might easily be mistaken 
 for those of an enthusiast ! I will, therefore, 
 content myself by saying that I consider its 
 difficulties to be very much exaggerated both 
 outside and inside the ranks of its votaries. 
 
 One reason why the efforts of some to learn 
 fly dressing have been irksome or unsuccessful 
 is that they have begun with the most 
 difficult style, namely, the professional's, or fly 
 dressing without the aid of a vice. As this was 
 the way in which I myself commenced I well 
 know what difficult, finger cramping work it is 
 for the beginner. I trust, however, that the 
 reader will be so far guided by my experience as 
 to adopt the use of a vice and some such acces- 
 sories and tools as I shall shortly describe, and in 
 a very short time he will know fly dressing to be 
 what, if rightly gone about, it always is an 
 interesting, easy, and useful recreation. 
 
 One often sees in papers requests for informa- 
 tion regarding profitable home employment. It 
 has been a matter of surprise to me that fly 
 dressing does not receive more prominence in this 
 connection. There seems to be everything to 
 recommend it. The stock-in-trade necessary for 
 a beginning is small and inexpensive. The profits 
 are good, and, highest recommendation of all, the 
 demand for flies is always brisk, and the market 
 never seems to be overstocked. I hope that these 
 pages may be of use to some of those who may 
 B 2
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 take up fly dressing as a means of a livelihood* ; 
 though, of course, they are primarily intended 
 for the instruction of the amateur fly dresser. 
 
 In this connection I cannot refrain from 
 quoting the following short passage from Robert 
 Louis Stevenson's " Virginibus Puerisque." He 
 is contrasting literature with painting as a hobby, 
 but his words have a very evident application to 
 our present subject. 
 
 " But painting, on the contrary, is often highly 
 sedative ; because so much of the labour, after 
 your picture is once begun, is almost entirely 
 manual, and of that skilled sort of manual labour 
 which offers a continual series of successes, and 
 so tickles a man, through his vanity, into good 
 humour. 
 
 '*' 
 
 . . . . " A stupid artist, right or wrong, is 
 almost certain he has found a right tone or a 
 right colour, or made a dexterous stroke with his 
 brush. 
 
 '* 
 
 " It would be well for all the genus irritabile to 
 add something of skilled labour to intangible 
 brain work." 
 
 * I am afraid I cannot advise anyone to take up fly 
 dressing as a means of n livelihood. I know several who 
 have tried it and been greatly disappointed. ED. Fishing 
 Gazette.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ON THE EXACT IMITATION THEOEY. 
 
 THERE are few questions of more general interest 
 among fly-fishers than that of how far it is 
 necessary or expedient that the artificial fly on 
 the cast should resemble the natural fly on the 
 water. It will not be out of place to devote a 
 chapter to its discussion, as the utility of high- 
 class fly-dressing, and the methods to be followed 
 therein, are practically determined by its answer. 
 
 I have myself always found the exact imita- 
 tion theory a safe one by which to be guided, at 
 any rate when fish are well on the feed. I con- 
 stantly observe, when wet-fly fishing, that trout 
 will show an unmistakeable preference for a good 
 imitation of one of the natural flies to be seen at 
 the time, no matter in what position on the cast 
 it is placed. Indeed, occasions are of frequent 
 occurrence when it is useless to fish with any 
 other. 
 
 As another argument from direct experience, I 
 may say that I have been forced to the conclusion 
 that, when several species of flies are on the water 
 at the same time, a feeding fish will, as a rule, 
 confine his attentions to one of them. This fact 
 rests not only on observations of the fish while in 
 the water, but on the evidence of post-mortem 
 examination. I have always made a habit of 
 examining the stomachs of the fish I catch, and 
 have generally found those of surface feeders to 
 contain but one species of fly in any considerable 
 quantity even when more than one species had
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 been continuously abundant, and where this was 
 not the case each species was so massed together 
 by itself as equally well to support my belief that 
 the trout at his ordinary meals is no lover 
 of nondescript dishes or of variety for variety's 
 sake. 
 
 Why a trout should exercise this selective 
 faculty I am at loss to explain. It may be for 
 many reasons. It may be that he is a creature of 
 highly cultivated taste. Certainly no creature is 
 supplied with daintier food with which to develop 
 such. Or it may be that all the lower animals are 
 extremely conservative in their nature, perhaps 
 because it saves them the trouble of thinking, 
 or by reason of a sort of self -hypnotism. A 
 remarkable instance of this kind is that of the 
 bee, which may often be noticed to go from one 
 flower to another of the same colour, avoiding 
 those whose colour is different. I am aware that 
 this serves a useful purpose in properly fertilising 
 seed, but it is in the bee's own personal motives 
 that I am at present interested. And surely, if 
 such exist at all, they must contain their element 
 of selfishness. Are not all economic institutions 
 sustained on this principle ? 
 
 If, then, the trout's habits in feeding are such 
 as I have attempted to prove them, the exact 
 imitation theory stands upon an exceedingly firm 
 basis. It is, of course, impossible to affix an 
 indelibly inscribed label to the character of any 
 individual, still less to that of any species, which 
 shall at all times truly describe it, and so it is 
 not unlikely that we should meet with occasional 
 contrary instances. But, in my opinion, these 
 contrary instances are not really so numerous as 
 they would seem to be. In the first place, there 
 is nothing to prevent our thinking in many cases 
 where " the wrong fly " is taken that it is taken 
 rather for its resemblance to the " right " one
 
 ON THE EXACT IMITATION THEORY. 
 
 than for its divergence from it.* And, again, 
 many instances that appear contrary in a more 
 convincing degree may, in reality, not be contrary 
 at all. For example : Fish are often feeding on 
 sunk flies, or flies just as they are assuming the 
 dun, or pseudimago, state beneath the surface oi 
 the water, and the success of some particular 
 artificial may be due to its resemblance to this fly. 
 
 In my opinion, also, some instances of fancy 
 flies and others being found more useful than good 
 copies of the natural fly before us, at times when 
 fish appear to be feeding well, are to be satisfac- 
 torily explained by the theory that the fish are, 
 in reality, only " tailing " the said natural fly. 
 My own experience lends a certain amount of 
 evidence, since, on several occasions when I have 
 found a random change of fly to result in a cap- 
 ture, the rises have not been of that steady, 
 unobtrusive kind, as when a fish means business, 
 but of a wanton, sportive, tumbling character, 
 often making the water fairly boil, and myself 
 fairly wild with excitement, but in the rarest of 
 instances betokening anything but an empty 
 creel. 
 
 At this stage I should, perhaps, remark that 
 my observations have all been taken on a river 
 where insect food is abundant. I can well 
 understand that where this is not the case other 
 conditions may obtain very different from those 
 which I have been considering. I know that those 
 who fish such waters are often inclined to think 
 that it is of little importance what fly is used. 
 I trust, however, that I have already said enough 
 to show that this, when stated as a general truth, 
 
 * It is to be noted in this connection that it is the 
 smaller trout that display the greatest laxity of choice; 
 also that different species of flies "on" together are 
 usually very dissimilar : e.g., the May Fly, Alder, and Black 
 Gnat.
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 is a creed which does discredit alike to fisherman 
 and fish. 
 
 There is now a third theory to be examined. 
 That which, assuming an analogy more or less 
 complete between the purpose of the fly-fisher 
 and that of the advertiser, lays down the rule 
 that, whereas the latter sometimes finds it 
 advantageous to attract attention by a misspelt 
 word or some striking incongruity, the former 
 may hope for good results from the use of an 
 artificial fly resembling the natural in most 
 respects, but with such a difference as may be 
 expected to excite curiosity but not engender 
 fright. This, I think, is a fair statement of the 
 views advanced as plausible by " Mona " in the 
 F. G. some months ago, and vigorously contro- 
 verted by " Pheasant Tail." 
 
 There may be much good sense in the idea, as 
 I shall hereafter attempt to show, if applied only 
 at times when fish are not feeding ; but, if I reason 
 aright, it depends on an obvious fallacy when its 
 application is extended. A feeding fish cannot 
 be considered to be in an ordinary casual state of 
 consciousness. It is, we should expect, by virtue 
 of being a feeding fish, in a state open to receive 
 one certain impression, namely, the image of the 
 fly on which it is feeding, and relatively im- 
 pervious to all other impressions of no greater 
 inherent magnitude ; in fact, in a state compar- 
 able rather to that of a person scanning a hoarding 
 for a well-known advertisement he wishes to 
 see, the hoarding containing only advertisements 
 of about the same size and general charac- 
 teristics, than to that of an unpreoceupied 
 bystander. And just as any advertisement would 
 attract the attention of the said man in a degree 
 proportionate to its resemblance to the one of 
 which he is in search, so the nearer one's artificial 
 resembles the fly which is being taken at the time,
 
 ON THE EXACT IMITATION THEORY. 
 
 the better is it calculated to attract the attention 
 of the fish. 
 
 To present to such a fish an artificial repre- 
 senting a different fly, or designedly " freakish," 
 is therefore without any excuse that I am able 
 to find, and is only calculated to arouse sus- 
 picion, and draw attention to the main point 
 of " freakishness," namely, the presence of the 
 hook. At best it is only to substitute for an 
 imitation of something that the fish expects, 
 wants, and knows it wants, an object having no 
 such certain recommendation. 
 
 This latter remark, which is almost independent 
 of any assumption as to the trout's nature, will 
 apply though with somewhat diminished force 
 where trout are not actually feeding but " waiting 
 for the rise." Hence, in this case, it is well to 
 commence with artificials like the insects season- 
 able at the time, though other patterns may 
 meet with good success, especially when cast 
 and recast so as to create the idea that flies 
 of this sort are passing over the fish in large 
 numbers.* But when we can satisfy ourselves 
 that the inaction of the fish is due to satiety, or, 
 as may often be the case in the summer time, 
 a disinclination to spoil their appetites for supper, 
 we have quite a different case with which to deal. 
 
 When our quarry, their banquet over, have 
 betaken themselves sub tegminefagi, to enjoy that 
 blissful state of lazy repose which we anglers are 
 sometimes privileged to share, it is then that the 
 energetic of our number should mount their 
 Wickhams or other heretical lures that their 
 fancies may dictate. Such a fly might then, as 
 being an unaccustomed sight, and as displaying 
 unusually bold contrasts of colour, force itself 
 
 * This is the theory of the late David Foster. Vide 
 " The Scientific Angler " re red caterpillars. 
 
 B 3
 
 10 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 upon the unoccupied attention of the lethargic 
 fish, when another would pass by unobserved. It 
 might thus stir it into that impulsive activity 
 which is consequent on the sudden arousal of the 
 faculties in both man and lower animal, and 
 which, being unaccompanied either by suspicion 
 or even ordinary caution, is a state propitious to 
 the success of the angler's strategy. 
 
 I can see no need to frame any far-fetched 
 theories to explain why the trout takes fancy 
 flies. It would seem quite sufficient to say that 
 he evidently regards them as things endowed with 
 life, and weaker than himself ; and the same 
 obvious explanation will, of course, apply in the 
 salmon's case also. The theory that it is rage 
 that causes salmon and trout to rise at nondescript 
 flies seems quite unnecessary. Is it rage that 
 makes the child, the natural child, kill a fly on 
 the window pane or, years later, throw stones at 
 birds or, years later still, take delight in catch- 
 ing uneatable fish ? Why should we not give all 
 circumstances their much more obvious explana- 
 tion, as manifestations, of the predatory instinct 
 in predatory animals ? 
 
 It will not be necessary to remind the reader 
 that, hitherto I have only been discussing the 
 ideals to be aimed at in trout fly making, without 
 reference to the manner of carrying them out in 
 practice. 
 
 My opinions are much more puritanical than 
 my actions. 
 
 Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor. 
 
 Considerations of convenience often lead me 
 to be content with something short of what 
 I might, with more labour, accomplish. After all, 
 when it is remembered that the trout, under 
 advantageous circumstances, sees our fly for but 
 one critical moment, we can easily believe that, 
 after a certain stage is reached, each degree of
 
 ON THE EXACT IMITATION THEOEY. ll 
 
 closer resemblance to nature lias a smaller value 
 than the last, and that, if the main characteristics 
 of the natural are expressed in the artificial, the 
 latter may be considered a good one. Let us 
 take an example : The medium Olive Dun has 
 a body olive green down the back, olive yellow 
 underneath, and with sides ribbed with both 
 colours ; but since the sides are most exposed to 
 the fish's view, their impression on the eye must 
 so predominate as to make it sufficient that the 
 whole body of the artificial should uniformly 
 resemble them.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 ON HOOKS. 
 
 THE selection of a suitable hook upon which to 
 dress a fly is of the first importance in more 
 senses than one. There are probably many 
 amateurs, and one or two professionals, who have 
 had this fact unpleasantly borne in upon them. 
 For my own part, the biggest trout I ever hooked 
 
 in a river ; but there, the story is an old one. 
 
 The fly, a neat Little Pale Blue, now reposes in 
 my fly book, the hook broken behind the barb. 
 
 Care should be taken to have always plenty of 
 the best hooks, in all sizes, that one is likely to 
 need. The result is usually disastrous when one 
 is forced to buy cheap hooks from the local hard- 
 ware shop. Hooks of good material and temper, 
 and properly enamelled* are all to be had from 
 good houses by paying a fair price. The qualities 
 mentioned are independent of one another, and 
 are therefore comparatively easy to secure ; but, 
 as regards its remaining qualities, which are 
 mainly of a mechanical nature, a good hook, to 
 borrow Mr. Wells' s apt expression, is " a creature 
 of compromise." 
 
 Mr. Pennell, in his "Modern Practical Angler," 
 was, I believe, the first who set himself the 
 problem of attaining this compromise. Mr. Wells 
 renewed the discussion in his excellent work, 
 " Rods and Fly Tackle," presumably because he 
 
 * The enamelled hooks are the brown and the black. 
 The blue are not enamelled, and are therefore not rust 
 proof.
 
 ON HOOKS. 13 
 
 did not find himself fully in accord with Mr. 
 Pennell. And now I, an unknown writer, having 
 also opinions of my own on the subject, must 
 needs speak out my mind and survey the same 
 ground that both my masters have measured 
 before me, in the light that they have left behind 
 them. I will follow Mr. PennelTs mapped-out 
 mode of inquiry, as so much clearness is thereby 
 gained. 
 
 To be perfect for fly dressing purposes, then, 
 a hook should have : 
 
 1. A searching point. 
 
 2. Quick penetration, without tendency to rake. 
 
 3. Good holding power. 
 
 4. Strength. 
 
 5. Neatness and adaptability to form of fly. 
 
 A SEARCHING POINT. 
 
 Neither Mr. Pennell nor Mr. Wells appears to 
 have given much consideration to this condition. 
 
 r***" 
 
 Fio. 1. Mr. Pennell's typical position of the hook after 
 penetration. 
 
 At least it seems to have been inadequately 
 distinguished from the condition of quick pene- 
 tration, especially since, as we shall shortly 
 see, the requirements of the two are entirely 
 antagonistic. 
 
 Mr. Pennell states as the case of hooking 
 " most common in practice, that of the hook 
 having penetrated quite through the lip of the 
 fish, so that the point protrudes." Mr. Wells, on 
 the contrary, says : " It must not be forgotten
 
 14 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 that the problem is not to pierce an obstacle 
 squarely across the path of the hook ; but its 
 point is to engage with an oblique surface, and 
 when so engaged it should turn at once from its 
 former path and bury downward." 
 
 There seems to be some contrariety of opinion 
 here. Mr. Wells is evidently considering such 
 cases of hooking as when the fly remains entirely 
 inside the fish's mouth ; for in the case assumed 
 by Mr. Pennell, the lip, the object to be pierced, 
 certainly is "squarely across the path of the 
 hook." Both cases are undoubtedly of frequent 
 
 FIG. 2. In the above diagram the hooks are shown in an 
 upright position. In practice they will generally be 
 inclined over on their sides, which would make the 
 necessity for a searching point to be still greater than is 
 indicated. On the other hand, the hook will not often 
 be drawn so directly across the lip, but rather it will 
 meet it slantwise, which will affect the case in the 
 opposite direction. 
 
 occurrence, and in both the advantage of a 
 searching point is apparent. A hook designed to 
 meet Mr. PennelFs case should be of such a form 
 as to allow the point to get well down under the 
 lip into the channel-like space between the lip 
 and the tongue (Fig. 2), while one designed to 
 meet Mr. Wells's case should as far as possible 
 ensure that its point will always touch the flesh 
 (Fig. 3), and readily explore any little cranny 
 that may lie in its path. 
 
 There are two ways in which the point of 
 a hook can be made "searching." One way is 
 exemplified in the sneck and Kirby hooks. These
 
 ON HOOKS. 15 
 
 are bent so that they cannot possibly lie flat, 
 that is to say, the point is kerbed or turned out of 
 the plane of the shank and bend. This renders 
 the hook almost certain to " catch on " when 
 jammed into an angle of the mouth or pressed 
 between the lips, or the tongue and the palate. 
 It must be admitted, however, that there are 
 positions into which the hook may get, where 
 kerbing is in every respect a disadvantage. The 
 second method of exposing the point is simply to 
 turn it away from the shank as much as the 
 satisfaction of other conditions will allow, while 
 keeping it in the same plane with the shank and 
 bend ; and, of course, a part of the wire behind 
 
 PIG. 3. Circumstances are exaggerated in this diagram 
 also ; but it is hoped that it will be successful in con- 
 veying the principles it is intended to illustrate. 
 
 the barb projecting beneath the point is highly 
 detrimental to the latter's exposure. Of this the 
 Dublin Limerick hook is an example. 
 
 QUICKNESS OF PENETRATION. 
 
 If anyone were to hold the point of a hook 
 between his finger and thumb, and desire to push 
 it into, say, a piece of cork, in what direction, 
 with regard to the hook, would he apply a force 
 in order to do this most easily ? Surely in the 
 direction of some line through the extreme point, 
 and lying between the upper and lower surfaces 
 of the wire at the point. It will be noted that, 
 when the proper direction is found, the point
 
 16 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 will penetrate precisely in this direction, and be 
 in no way deflected. The inclination of this 
 line, which we will call the line of penetration, 
 to either surface, will, in general, be proportional 
 to the amount of resistance acting on that surface. 
 Hence in the ordinary hook with round sectioned 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
 point, the line of penetration will be inclined 
 almost equally to both surfaces (Fig. 4). 
 
 Now (Fig. 5) the force actually applied in hooking 
 a fish is, during the first and critical period, 
 approximately in the direction P S, and, as the 
 point penetrates, gradually veering towards the 
 
 FIG. 5. 
 
 P S Initial line of pull. P X Penetrating force. 
 
 Q S Final line of pull. P Y Tearing-out force. 
 
 p Angle of penetration. 
 
 direction Q S. And this force, P S, in accordance 
 with the mechanical law, known as the " parallelo- 
 gram of forces," is equivalent to two forces acting 
 in the direction P X and P Y, and of magnitudes 
 proportional to these lines. The effect of the 
 former is, as we have seen, to make the hook
 
 ON HOOKS. 
 
 penetrate in its own direction ; while the latter, 
 which is at right angles to the upper surface 
 of the hook point, tends to tear it upwards and 
 out of the flesh ; but if the resistance is sufficiently 
 great, it will do little more than slightly " spring " 
 the wire and create extra friction. It will be 
 seen that a hook's penetrating power decreases as 
 the angle p increases, and increases with the ratio 
 of P X to P Y, or the ratio of the useful force to 
 the harmful. It is, of course, also affected by the 
 degree of sharpness and form of the point, and 
 by the prominence of the barb. 
 
 In Mr. PennelFs diagrams the line of penetra- 
 tion is shown lying on the under surface of the 
 hook-point. Mr. Wells, in correcting this error, 
 goes to the other extreme, and asserts that the 
 upper surface in an ordinary hook " determines 
 its promptness to engage, as well as the direction 
 in which it will follow." The italics are mine. I 
 quote the following from " Fly Rods and Fly 
 Tackle": 
 
 " Take a common carpenter's chisel and apply it to a 
 board, with the bevel down and in contact with the 
 board. The bevel here guides the edge, and forces it to 
 advance parallel with the surface upon which the bevel 
 rests ; there is not the slightest tendency to bury. It 
 would seem to follow from this that the hook shown in 
 the first of Mr. Pennell's figures (Fig. 6) is by no means 
 theoretically perfect as to penetration (or promptness 
 ' to bite,' which is the idea I understand Mr. Pennell 
 intends to convey), but, on the contrary it is both 
 theoretically and practically imperfect in this respect. 
 
 " Now let us reverse the chisel and apply it to the 
 board, with the bevelled side uppermost, and at such an 
 angle that the flat side (which will then become what 
 we have termed the ' following ' side) , does not touch 
 the board. Here we have an exact reproduction of the 
 penetrating point of a fish hook, one governed by exactly 
 the same laws. Attempt to cut with the chisel held in 
 this position ! It buries at once in the board and comes 
 to a halt. The ' advancing ' edge, the bevel, guides 
 and forces it downwards."
 
 18 
 
 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 This last statement, "the advancing edge." 
 &c., is all that I can find in Mr. Well's discussion 
 by way of proof, that it is the upper surface of 
 the hook point (or, as Mr. Wells's calls it, " the 
 advancing edge "), which determines the direction 
 of penetration. If his experiments be carefully 
 performed, it will be seen that the under surface 
 
 FIG. 6. The largest hook in the above diagram is referred 
 to by Mr. Pennell as " mechanically perfect so far as 
 penetration depending on tend is concerned." It is not 
 really so. The smaller figures illustrate such mechani- 
 cally perfect hooks out-barb and in-barb. The put-barb 
 hook in existence is the nearest approach obtainable to 
 the perfection of which Mr. Pennell speaks. 
 
 (or " following edge ") has quite an equal in- 
 fluence, and that the line of penetration, as I 
 have already said, lies between the two surfaces. 
 The reason that the chisel does not bury in the 
 first experiment is because its point is not 
 " searching," and is unable to insinuate itself be- 
 hind any of the minute roughness of the wood, 
 and so get a " catch on." The result would be
 
 ON HOOKS. 
 
 the same in the second experiment if the wood 
 were sufficiently hard and smooth. 
 
 HOLDING POWER. 
 
 Whether a hook that has once penetrated will 
 hold or no is chiefly a matter of whether the 
 resistance of the flesh is great enough to prevent 
 the hook's tearing out. This, again, depends on 
 the amount of tearing-out force which is least 
 with a hook of quick penetration the area and 
 flatness of the upper surface of the wire, and the 
 depth to which the point has penetrated. 
 
 It is obvious that, provided a hook penetrate 
 at all, the greater its angle of penetration, the 
 deeper will be the hold which it will take. So 
 that, within certain limits, it is true that the 
 better a hook's penetrating qualities the weaker 
 will be its holding power. Figs. 2 and 3, in 
 which the directions of penetration are marked, 
 will illustrate this important fact.* It is also 
 plain that there should be sufficient wire directly 
 behind the barb to afford a hold of sufficient 
 depth, whatever be the direction of pene- 
 tration. 
 
 Concerning the barb itself, I think that a very 
 prominent one is quite unnecessary. A few 
 experiments will soon convince anyone that a 
 very small increase of prominence will necessitate 
 a very considerable increase of force to make the 
 hook penetrate as far as before, so that in fly- 
 fishing for trovit with small hooks a very pro- 
 minent barb would often defeat its own ends. 
 When the point is driven properly home, the 
 barb is not likely to be called upon, and where a 
 
 * It will be clear from the diagrams in this article that 
 the smaller the inclination of the line of pull to the surface 
 of the flesh to be penetrated, the more effective in every 
 way will be the " strike." Hence, at the moment of 
 striking the rod point should be as low as is convenient.
 
 20 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 slightly barbed hook would not secure a good 
 hold, one with a prominent barb would be unlikely 
 to penetrate over the barb at all. Of the in-barb 
 and the out-barb hooks, the former will usually 
 lock itself more securely in the flesh, since the 
 more pressure is on the inner or upper surface of 
 the wire. However, it is probable that in the 
 majority of cases either barb would fulfil its 
 duties satisfactorily enough. If the out-barb 
 loses its hold it is more likely to be because 
 insufficient attention is paid in its design to the 
 requirement of deep penetration. 
 
 Mr. Pennell gives as the chief criterion of the 
 holding power of a hook one which I cannot 
 think is of any real importance at all. After 
 stating what I have already quoted regarding the 
 typical position of a hook after it has penetrated, 
 he proceeds to say : 
 
 " In this case it is evident that, when once hooked, 
 the nearer the point approaches the shank of the hook 
 the less chance must the fish have of escaping. This 
 will be seen by carrying the principal to the extreme 
 limit and assuming that the point was so bent in after 
 hooking as actually to touch the shank the fish's lip 
 would then be inclosed in a complete triangle, from 
 which, of course, there could be no possible escape." 
 
 This style of argument (viz., from one limiting 
 case) is a very deceptive one, and by no means 
 conclusive. It matters little to most of us, for 
 instance, whether we have a doorway 8ft. high or 
 10ft. high by which to make our exit from a 
 room, and if we find we can enter without incon- 
 venience we should scarcely be inclined to have 
 any further misgivings. And yet we could prove 
 the contrary of this just as logically as Mr. 
 Pennell reasons above. Since, if on our entry the 
 doorway were to close up into a mere crack in the 
 wall, it would be useless as a means of egress ! A 
 design for a hook that does not provide sufficient
 
 ON HOOKS. 21 
 
 and much more than sufficient room for the 
 passage in would indeed be an absurdity, and if 
 there be no mechanical arrangement, such as a 
 point guard, or other similar abomination, there 
 will clearly be plenty of room for passage out. Mr. 
 Pennell is surely inconsistent in considering this 
 alleged influence of the hook's shape in a contin- 
 gency that might arise (viz., the hook's slipping 
 backwards after penetration), and ignoring the 
 fact that precisely the same influence has, a 
 fortiori, a, right to be included, when he is 
 examining the circumstances affecting penetration 
 itself. 
 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 It is an old axiom that the strength of a chain 
 is that of its weakest link, and it is equally clear 
 that the strength of a hook is that of the part 
 where it is most likely to break. There are two 
 points which require examination behind the 
 barb, where too much wire is often cut away ; 
 and the point at the greatest distance from the 
 line of pull, which is subject to the greatest 
 strain. The thickness of the wire behind the 
 barb, measured parallel to the line of pull, is of 
 far greater importance than its thickness at right 
 angles to this line. Messrs. Hardy take advan- 
 tage of this principal in their " harpoon " hook, 
 and cut the barb (in this case the barbs), not 
 from the upper or under surface, but from the 
 near and off sides of the wire. The same effect 
 might be got by flattening the wire at these 
 sides before cutting the barbs in the ordinary 
 way. 
 
 Fig. 7 illustrates geometrically how the 
 tendency of the hook to break at the upper angle 
 of the bend, is affected by its distance from the 
 line of pull. It will be observed that I have con- 
 sidered the final line of piill, since the tension of
 
 22 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 the line does not usually reach its maximum till 
 the hook has penetrated as far as it will go. 
 
 NEATNESS AND ADAPTABILITY TO FORM OF FLY. 
 If we regard only as do many anglers of my 
 acquaintance the adaptibility of a hook to the 
 form of the fly, I think we should prefer those 
 hooks with perfectly straight shanks, and as much 
 
 Fra. 7. Q S Final line of pull. W Weakest point so far 
 as position only is concerned, s Line of strength, with 
 the length of which the likelihood of the hook to break 
 at W increases. 
 
 of the wire in the shank as possible, or those with 
 shanks curving slightly away from the point, 
 such as Mr. Pennell's eyed sneck hooks. These, 
 by the way, have the advantage of not pinching 
 the gut at the head of the fly, as the angle which 
 the gut when strained here makes with the wire 
 is so small. Unfortunately, it seems that it is 
 only to eyed hooks that the principle is applied !
 
 ON HOOKS. 
 
 23 
 
 In dry fly fishing a shank of one of the above- 
 mentioned descriptions is of more than artistic 
 importance. For that of a good floating hook 
 must allow as complete contact as is possible with 
 the surface of the water. 
 
 AN ATTEMPT AT A COMPROMISE. 
 The conclusion to which the above dissertation 
 leads is, that there is no hook in use so vicious in 
 
 c 
 
 FIG. 8. 1. Down-eyed Pennell sneck with upturned shank. 
 2. Hall up-eyed. 3. Sneck. 4. Kirby. 6. Dublin 
 Limerick. 6. Bound. 7. Down-eyed Pennell Limerick 
 with upturned shank. 8. Down-eyed Pennell Limerick 
 with straight shank. 9. Nicolay out-barb. 10. Hook 
 with guarded point (not used by sportsmen). 
 
 construction but that something may be said in 
 its favour. For my own part, I prefer, of ordinary 
 hooks, the sneck and Kirby bends ; and of eyed 
 hooks, Mr. PennelFs eyed sneck hooks, already 
 referred to, and Mr. Hall's. 
 
 I have devoted considerable space to the fore- 
 going discussion, because it is important that one 
 should be able to judge " the points " of one's 
 tackle, and because the "contemplative man"
 
 -I HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 has an interest and pleasure in so doing ; yet, lest 
 it be said that no practical suggestions have been 
 evolved, I will proceed to describe the ideal hook 
 of my imagining. It must be understood that I 
 in no way assume the right to speak with 
 authority, and that I am quite open to the con- 
 viction of being in error, either here or elsewhere. 
 On this understanding I present the drawing 
 below (Fig. 9). 
 
 The reader will see for himself that the 
 characteristic lines and angles shown are as good 
 as those of most hooks in use at the present day, 
 while superiority may be claimed as regards the 
 exposure of the point. The last named is a little 
 kerbed, so that penetration is a little greater 
 
 FIG. 9. 
 
 than that shown on the plane of the paper. The 
 method of sharpening the point resembles that 
 employed by Messrs. Hardy for their " harpoon " 
 hook, but in mine the upper surface is flat, and 
 there is only one cutting edge (viz., that under- 
 neath) of any sharpness, while in their's there 
 are three. It is just possible that, while all 
 cutting edges aid penetration immensely, those at 
 the sides might start a tear in the flesh, and aid 
 the hook's pulling out. The underneath cutting 
 edge is free from this objection, as, once the hook 
 has penetrated, there is very little pressure where 
 the cut has been made, and, in any case, down- 
 ward cutting cannot do much harm. This mode 
 of sharpening also makes the point likely to get
 
 ON HOOKS. 25 
 
 into any little hollow or furrow that it might 
 otherwise escape. Until I saw an actual speci- 
 men of Messrs. Hardy's hook, T imagined that 
 my idea of sharpening the under surface of the 
 point was original. The sectional drawing in 
 their catalogue is, or was, incorrect, and shows 
 only the sharpened sides. 
 
 The vexed question of eyed hooks v. hooks to 
 gut may safely be left to take care of itself.* The 
 advantages of the eyed hooks on the score of 
 strength is obvious, while the advantages claimed 
 in respect of economy and convenience can be 
 readily referred to the test of direct experience. 
 Personally, I consider that flies to gut are made 
 more easily and pleasantly than those on eyed 
 hooks. But this may be a matter of practice. 
 There are probably many who hold the opposite 
 opinion. 
 
 * Flies on eyed hooks are almost invariably used in dry 
 fly fishing. In the north flies on gut used wet are more 
 generally in use. ED. Fishing Gazette.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 ON MATERIALS. 
 
 I HAVE now arrived at the strictly practical 
 portion of the present series of articles, and am 
 not altogether sorry. Theory has its fascinations 
 for me, likewise its dangers, as have out-of-depth 
 waters for a youngster who has imperfectly learnt 
 to swim, but when I am content with practice I 
 have, at any rate, my fords and stepping-stones, 
 of which I have myself made use for years, and 
 over which I have good hopes of being able to 
 pilot others. It gives me confidence to feel that 
 for the rest of my journey I shall always or nearly 
 always have at least one foot on the ground. 
 
 The subject of the present article is one of 
 peculiarly wide scope. There is scarcely a feather 
 or fur that could be said to be useless for fly 
 making, and furs and feathers would by no means 
 complete the list of what we should desire for the 
 purpose. 
 
 The first material we shall require is tying 
 silk, and Pearsall's " gossamer " tying silk, which 
 is now widely known and used, is the best with 
 which I am acquainted. It is sold in a very con- 
 venient form, viz., on box-wood reels of small 
 height and relatively large diameter. The silk 
 itself is very fine, smooth, hard, and strong, in 
 fact, just as it ought to be. 
 
 Next in order come the materials for wings, 
 and here I will make an attempt to roughly 
 classify the most useful as to their colour. 
 
 Many flies notably spinners and small gnats
 
 ON MATERIALS. 27 
 
 have wings almost as transparent as crystal. 
 Mr. Francis Francis, in describing a dressing of 
 the Jenny Spinner, writes as follows : 
 
 " The wings ah ! those wings ! What shall we do 
 to imitate their clear, delicate, watery transparency ? 
 The tips of two very pale light blue hackles might, per- 
 haps, come near. The usual way, however, is as 
 Theakstone and Ronalds recommend to dress the fly 
 hackle fashion, or buzz, as it is termed. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " If this fly could be well imitated it would be a valu- 
 able one, but hitherto our imitations are but sorry 
 affairs ; the fish seem to know it too, for, although 
 rising greedily at the natural fly, they do not greatly 
 favour the imitation, even at the best, as they will do 
 that of flies more easily imitated." 
 
 The Jenny Spinner has by no means ceased to 
 be a puzzle to fly dressers, but we have certainly 
 made some progress since Mr. Francis wrote. 
 There are several substances which imitate the 
 wings very well as to appearance, but which are 
 deficient in durability, and are generally much 
 too brittle and stiff. Fish scales have been very 
 much used, those of the pike especially so. I 
 have never seen herring scales recommended, 
 and yet they are, perhaps, the most easily ob- 
 tained of all, and are finer in proportion to their 
 size, and brighter than pike scales or any others 
 that I have hitherto come across. 
 
 I think, however, that the outer membrane of 
 a rook's quill, to which I attempted to di-aw 
 attention in the F. G. a year or two ago, will be 
 found as good, if not better, than any substance at 
 present used. The rook quills for this purpose 
 should be moulted ones, gathered from beneath 
 the trees of a rookery, and it is important that 
 they should not have lain long in wet weather. 
 
 Cut off about l^in. of the root end of the quill, 
 and steep it for a few minutes in hot water 1 
 c 2
 
 28 
 
 HOW TO TIB FLIES. 
 
 Then slit the quill straight down the middle, turn 
 it inside out, detach the outside membrane at 
 the extreme root end with the thumb nail, and 
 tear it off the quill. (Fig. 10.) 
 
 The membrane obtained will be of a good 
 size, and will take a dye readily. It will be 
 possible to get a small piece of almost any degree 
 of fineness required. For although at the ex- 
 treme root end it will be somewhat stiff and 
 thick, it tapers away in the opposite direction to 
 the fineness of the wings of the natural fly. In 
 
 FIG. 10. 
 
 1. Quill intact. 2. Quill split and membrane partially 
 separated. 3. Membrane a used for wings. 
 
 dry fly making it can be used double, i.e., four 
 thicknesses going to form the two wings. 
 
 For perfectly white wings, the swan's wing and 
 tail feathers are generally used. These are quite 
 fine towards the edge. Aylesbury duck feathers 
 are also good. 
 
 Wings with white tips and roots almost black 
 are obtained from the secondary (Fig. 11) wing 
 feathers of the mallard. Plover tail feathers 
 afford wings with black tips and white roots. 
 The small feathers found on the inside of snipe 
 and golden plover wings, as well as those of some 
 other birds, may be used for wings with white
 
 ON MATERIALS. 
 
 tips and light dun roots. The web of soft fibre 
 is not, in this case, cut from the quill, but the 
 tips of the feathers are used intact. 
 
 Light stone blue wings are supplied by the 
 wing and tail feathers of the coot. I may here 
 remark that there is often a great difference in 
 the shades of the inner and outer sides of feathers. 
 For instance, of the coot's feathers just mentioned 
 it is the inner side that is of a light stone blue, 
 the outer side being of a medium dun in young 
 birds, and of a medium to dark iron blue in 
 older specimens. 
 
 For light stone blue wings I believe that the 
 
 Lesser wing Greater Secpn- Tertiaries. Primaries, 
 
 covertg. wing coverts. daries. 
 
 FIG. 11. 
 
 feathers of the sea gull and sea swallows are also 
 used ; but those of the coot are not very scarce, 
 are easy to work with, and make a very beautiful 
 wing, which dries readily. The feathers of some 
 of the common tame blue pigeons resemble those 
 of the coot as to colour. 
 
 Snipe wings are extremely useful. They are of 
 a cold medium dun colour on the outer, and a 
 light dun shade on the inner side. They are, 
 perhaps, the best feathers with which to imitate 
 the duns appearing in early spring. 
 
 The starling is the bird beloved of fly dressers 
 " the fly dresser's darling," one is tempted t o
 
 30 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 call it. It is extremely plentiful, and there is 
 scarcely a feather on its body that is not of use. 
 Its wings are of a warmish dun shade, and vary 
 a good deal, according to the- age of the bird. 
 Those of a young specimen are of a peculiar 
 shade of bluish dun, run into brown, and edged 
 with yellow, while those of the oldest birds have 
 a distinct shade of red on the outer side. 
 
 Feathers of a reddish shade are also supplied 
 by the water-rail and land-rail (corncrake) ; the 
 red is more pronounced in the land-rail's feathers. 
 Dark cinnamon wings may be imitated with 
 the underneath tail feathers of the common 
 partridge. 
 
 The wing feathers of the thrush and redwing 
 (called " felt " in Ireland) are of a rich tawny 
 olive brown, running into a bright tawny 
 yellow towards the edge and root end of the 
 secondaries. 
 
 For iron blue wings the tail feathers of the 
 torn-tit are generally used. Tail feathers of the 
 merlin hawk have been strongly recommended by 
 the late Mr. John Bee ver ("Arundo"). I have 
 never possessed any myself, so I cannot speak of 
 them from experience. Breast feathers of the 
 coot and water-rail are good as to colour, but are 
 coarse and soft. The various members of the 
 swallow family swifts, martins, &c. all supply 
 nice wings, with clearly defined edges. They are, 
 for the most part, of a dark dun or blackish-brown 
 colour. Feathers of the darkest shades of this 
 colour are also to be had from the waterhen and 
 hen blackbird. For mottled wings, we have the 
 wing and tail feathers of the woodcock, which are 
 of a dingy brown colour, splashed at the edge 
 with blotches of tan. The wing and tail feathers 
 of the brown owl are of a very dark dun shade, 
 almost black, at the roots, dovetailed into white 
 at the edge.
 
 ON MATERIALS. 31 
 
 Of speckled feathers, those of the pheasant's 
 tail are the most generally useful. They make 
 very natural imitations of the wings of the March 
 Brown and of some other well known flies. 
 Speckled mallard feathers, brown and grey, are 
 also used in large quantities, especially in Ireland, 
 for lake and white trout flies. Barred teal 
 feathers, which are of a much darker shade than 
 grey mallard, are correspondingly favourites in 
 Scotland, as are also the bronze-coloured tail 
 feathers of the turkey. 
 
 Grey mallard and teal feathers are used, dyed, 
 for May Plies ; also guinea fowl and Rouen drake 
 feathers, which are recommended by Mr. Halford. 
 Feathers of the wood (or summer) duck, a native 
 of South America, are used, undyed, for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 Next to the wings come the whisks or tails. 
 These are simply two fibres cut from a large 
 hackle, or saddle feather of the cock or hen, or from 
 any fine and long plumed feathers of suitable 
 colour. 
 
 The wing coverts and back and breast feathers 
 of the coot and water-rail, and the feathers from 
 beneath the tail of the sparrowhawk, afford a 
 good assortment of iron blue, brown olive, and 
 yellow dun fibres which are difficult to obtain 
 elsewhere. Unfortunately, they are not very 
 durable. 
 
 Golden pheasant feathers, both toppings and 
 tippets, are also largely used for whisks, and 
 make particularly attractive ones for fancy flies. 
 The feathers from the back and sides of the 
 mallard and drake teal, already mentioned in this 
 chapter, are also useful. 
 
 I have found that many varieties of hair, 
 human especially, make most natural looking 
 whisks. The whisks of various animals, chiefly 
 rats and rabbits, are recommended. They are
 
 32 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 not, as is often supposed, unduly stiff at the ends, 
 but are generally difficult to obtain in quantity. 
 
 The long feelers projecting from the heads of 
 many of the down- wing flies are, for the purposes 
 of the fly dresser, analogous to the whisks, and 
 may be imitated by the same range of material.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 ON MATEEIALS (Continued). 
 
 THE range of materials for bodies is greatly 
 varied, and apparently very complete. Some 
 thirty years ago, floss, herl, wool, dubbing, and 
 tinsel were almost exclusively employed, and even 
 at the present day great quantities are used, but 
 quill, horsehair, and indiarubber are to a great 
 extent ousting them from favour. 
 
 Floss is simply raw silk, dyed, of course, in 
 most cases, and a great number of strands laid 
 on together. It is sold in skeins, from which one 
 need not trouble to unwind it, as a small piece 
 can be easily cut away when required and split 
 into several lengths of the desired thickness. 
 Floss is very easy to work with, and makes a very 
 pretty body ; but it can scarcely be recommended 
 for flies with light coloured bodies, as it darkens 
 so much when wet. 
 
 Herls are woolly-like strips of plume, taken 
 from such large feathers as are obtained from the 
 ostrich or peacock. They make stout, hairy 
 bodies, and are very much used, but are not a 
 favourite material of my own. Of the peacock's 
 herls most in demand, those from the lower part 
 of the tail are of a red bronze colour, while those 
 from the " sword " feathers are of a bright metallic 
 green. Herls from the wing of the heron, and the 
 tail of the turkey and pheasant are sometimes 
 used. 
 
 Wool, the hard crewel wool especially, is a good 
 material. It is what I generally use for pale 
 c 3
 
 34 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 yellow bodies, as it does not darken in the water, 
 nor does the variety named soak very readily. It 
 should be untwisted, split into several lengths, 
 and used in the same manner as floss. 
 
 The term dubbing relates less to the kind of 
 the material than to the manner in which it is 
 used. It is generally fur or wool teased out, spun 
 on a length of waxed tying silk, and then wound 
 round the hook shank in the same manner as are 
 other body materials. 
 
 Water-rat's fur, and fur from the hare's ear 
 are favourite dubbings, but the very fine yet 
 hard-fibred fur of a young seal is acknowledged 
 by all who try it to be the best dubbing obtain- 
 able. It is easily spun, and beautifully trans- 
 lucent. Many other varieties of fur rabbit's, 
 mole's, and young fox's are used ; also the 
 puppy hair from young setters or collies makes 
 fairly good dubbing. 
 
 It must not be supposed that it is necessary to 
 keep a different shade of the material for each 
 different shade of dubbed body that one will 
 require to make. Many shades are produced by 
 the thorough mixing together of two or more 
 other shades. Thus a blue and a yellow will 
 make a green, and a little red and brown added 
 will make an olive green. Practice and an eye 
 for colour are all that is needed to give the 
 necessary skill. 
 
 Obviously dubbing is particularly useful for 
 such flies as have rough hairy bodies, and it is also 
 almost universally employed for large lake flies, 
 its advantage here being that a very little weight 
 of it is required to form a large body. There is, 
 however, nearly always a want of definition about 
 a dubbed body which would seem to show 
 dubbing to be unsuitable for the dressing of 
 ordinary duns. 
 
 Horsehair is a good material, hair from both
 
 MATERIALS, 
 
 mane and tail being used ; the latter more 
 commonly, as it "ribs" so nicely. 
 
 I have recently turned my attention to a new 
 material, which I believe to be a very useful one. 
 It is roffia grass, used by gardeners to train plants 
 and make up bouquets. It is to be had of a very 
 pale cream and of a pale ginger colour. The thin 
 tape-like substance should be split, a thin strip 
 torn off it, tightly twisted, and then wound on the 
 hook shank. Used thus it resists the water for a 
 long time ; and a thin coat of varnish will make 
 it still more impervious. It ribs well, the laps 
 closing up well together ; it also takes a dye 
 readily, and is almost unbreakable. 
 
 Pure unvulcanised india-rubber is, in my 
 opinion, the best all round body material that we 
 have. It has just that fresh, juicy appearance 
 which is the distinctive characteristic of living 
 matter. It takes a dye pretty well, and can be 
 used either for light bodied flies (dressed 
 detached), or for dark bodied flies wound in the 
 usual way. 
 
 It is sold in lumps, nicely squared up as a rule, 
 and should be first cut into very thin slices of 
 about lin. long by Jin. broad, and then lengthwise 
 in very thin strips. A piece of cork of about 2in. 
 square, sandpapered perfectly flat on both sides, 
 makes a good cutting board ; and the best tool 
 that I know of is an old razor ground quite thin 
 in the blade, which should be kept wet while in 
 use. Stropping is necessary now and again, as 
 the rubber looks so very much better when cleanly 
 cut. The strips should be softened in hot water, 
 or by being rolled between the finger and thumb, 
 or moistened with turpentine, before being pulled 
 out ; neglect of this may also give them a ragged 
 edge. 
 
 Quill is, without doubt, the material most used 
 for small flies at the pi-esent time. It shows a
 
 36 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIKS. 
 
 well defined rib of colour, which is a feature of 
 certain natural flies, and an effect not easily 
 rendered in any other manner. It is also 
 impenetrable, and unaffected in colour by the 
 water. 
 
 Quill, as the term standing alone is generally 
 used, and as I have used it here, means herls from 
 the "eye" part, or immediately below it, of a 
 peacock's tail, with the soft fluff scraped away. 
 To do this : Cut the herl from the tail feather, or, 
 at any rate, trim it squarely across at the root 
 end after tearing it from the shaft. Now hold it 
 between the left forefinger and thumb, leaving 
 about lin. of the root end projecting to the right 
 (Fig. 12). Then scrape it, from A to B, between 
 
 PIG. 12. 
 
 the right thumb nail and ball of the right fore- 
 finger, and at intervals between the right fore- 
 finger nail and ball of the right thumb, so that 
 both sides of the quill may be treated in the 
 same manner. Some may prefer to use a blunt 
 knife instead of their nails. 
 
 If the length stripped be not sufficient, a longer 
 hold may be taken and a longer length scraped. 
 It is best not to take too long a hold at first, as 
 the quill is apt to break. Indeed, in any case, the 
 beginner has generally some difficulties in avoid- 
 ing a breakage. Only practice again that magic
 
 ON MATERIALS. 37 
 
 word is required to teach one to properly 
 regulate the pressure and speed of scraping. A 
 previous steeping of the herl in boiling water will 
 somewhat facilitate the operation. The herl should 
 then be partially dried before being scraped. 
 
 Peacock herls from the lower part of the feather 
 have shiny brown quills, which are occasionally 
 useful, and, besides peacock herls, those of the 
 ostrich are sometimes employed. 
 
 Condor and adjutant herl quills are recom- 
 mended by Mr. Halford, and are certainly excel- 
 lent; but Mr. Halford must be in a peculiarly 
 fortunate position for obtaining them. Mr. 
 Hardy, of Alnwick, was good enough to send me 
 a small piece of condor feather, originally in the 
 possession of Mr. Halford. He told me at the 
 same time that the difficulties incident on 
 " catching your condor " are too great to allow 
 condor feathers to be a marketable commodity. 
 I believe that adjutant feathers are also very 
 scarce. There are probably many large and 
 coarsely plumed birds of the eagle, vulture, or 
 crane families, for instance, which have herl quills 
 more or less suitable for fly dressing. Those of 
 the heron have been used. 
 
 A piece of quill of a different class, for body 
 material, may be torn from almost any wing or 
 tail feather, in the following manner : 
 
 Tear off the webs of feather from both sides of 
 the shaft, thus removing along with them that 
 part of the quill from which they grow. Next 
 cut off the tip of the feather and split it at the 
 smallest end with the scissors' points. Then tear 
 the split ends apart, and scrape the insides of the 
 two strips of quill thus produced. 
 
 If the web, instead of being torn off, be cropped 
 closely with the scissors from a point near the tip 
 to the root end, the quill from which it has been 
 growing may be used as body material.
 
 HOW TO TIE 
 
 To remove this, take a firm hold of the web 
 which has been left on the tip of the shaft, and 
 start the tear with it, taking a shorter hold of 
 the quill, to avoid breaking it, as the tearing 
 proceeds. 
 
 Another kind of quill is that obtained by 
 stripping a long hackle or saddle feather of its 
 plume on either side. It makes a very natural 
 
 PIG. 13. 1. Feather entire. 2. Feather, with web closely 
 cropped, 3. Feather, with quill partially detached. 
 4. Piece of quill obtained. 
 
 looking body, which, so to speak, tapers itself 
 automatically in the forming ; the quill used 
 being tapered, and so the joints of the body 
 becoming wider and thicker as the winding pro- 
 ceeds from tail to shoulder. A friend, to whom 
 my first acquaintance with this material was 
 due, makes a very beautiful red spinner of the
 
 ON MATETRIA.LS, 30 
 
 shaft of the saddle feather of a dark red game 
 cock. 
 
 Grass and split pieces of corn blades, &c., are 
 sometimes convenient materials to use for green 
 bodies, and look uncommonly well. They retain 
 their colour much longer than might be supposed. 
 I once sent the Editor of the Fishing Gazette a fly 
 which I had tied two years before, and which had 
 figured on the cast. The colour of the body, 
 which was of one or other of the materials named, 
 had faded very little indeed. 
 
 Tinsel is used in very large quantities, both for 
 the whole body of the fly and as a ribbing. For 
 the former purpose flat tinsel is employed, and 
 for the latter fine round tinsel is used for small 
 flies, while for large lake flies the flat or oval 
 variety is necessary to give a sufficiently obtrusive 
 effect. I often wonder that tinsels for fly dressing 
 are not made in colours. One would think that 
 red, yellow, blue, and green tinsels would be just 
 the thing for salmon and lake trout flies, and I 
 feel sure that they would also be useful for such 
 of the small trout flies as have specially bright 
 bodies. We need not, however, be at a loss for a 
 substitute, as there is a method of making a 
 bright-bodied trout fly, which might well be con- 
 sidered an improvement on the coloured tinsel 
 idea in every respect except that of simplicity. 
 The idea was given me when I was a beginner in 
 fly dressing by a friend who had found it very 
 successful, and since then I have likewise proved 
 its utility on many occasions. The method was 
 as follows : First to lay a foundation of very fine 
 flat tinsel over the body, and then to cover it 
 sparingly with floss silk or wool of the proper 
 colour. In this way, and with the uee of the 
 transparent, quill-membrane wings, I have made 
 some of the best green and yellow midges that 
 I have ever seen.
 
 40 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 We must now pass on to the consideration of 
 hackles and such other materials as are used to 
 imitate the fly's legs. 
 
 With dubbed flies the dubbing itself, picked out 
 from beneath the shoulder with the needle, is 
 sometimes considered to be sufficient. Again, a 
 few hairs of some kind or other, tied in with the 
 tying silk and worked into place, are also occa- 
 sionally substituted for hackles. Small feathers, 
 such as those from the wren's tail, and from 
 beneath the wings of certain birds, also black 
 plover toppings, &c., are used in large quantities, 
 but scarcely call for separate notice here, as the 
 utility of most of them is not general, but limited 
 to particular dressings of particular flies. 
 
 Of neck feathers, that is to say, hackles properly 
 so called, we have an endless variety. The 
 speckled brown hackles of the partridge are often 
 used for March Brown flies. Hackles of the snipe 
 and golden plover, which in many respects 
 resembles the snipe, also grouse hackles, which 
 are of a more reddish tone than the others, are in 
 demand. Dotterel hackles are rarer, but are 
 considered almost indispensable in the north of 
 England. They are of a light dun in colour. 
 
 The bright iridescent hackles of the starling, 
 which are of a glinting shade of dark metallic 
 green and rose colour, as looked at when on the 
 bird, make excellent black hackles. The duller 
 feathers of the hen, and those taken from a lower 
 part of the neck of the male bird, are also useful. 
 I have found it extremely difficult to obtain good 
 black hackles from poultry, of a size suitable for 
 the very small flies. 
 
 The jungle cock, so much esteemed by dressers 
 of salmon flies, supplies badger hackles useful for 
 trout flies, though ometimes rather coarse in the 
 quill. 
 
 It is from poultry that the great majority of
 
 ON MATERIALS; 4l 
 
 hackles used in fly making are obtained. Those 
 of the cock are the brighter and the harder in the 
 fibre, but the hen is looked to for certain colours, 
 as, for instance, ginger and black. Honey dun, 
 blue dun, stone blue, yellow dun, and red hackles, 
 are best from game birds, but, with the exception 
 of the last, are very difficult to obtain. Blue 
 hackles are also to be obtained from Andalusians ; 
 white, cream, and yellow from Leghorns and 
 Dorkings ; buff from Cochins ; also excellent 
 hackles of all shades may often be obtained from 
 common barndoor fowl. Bantam hackles may 
 also be recommended. The best times to collect 
 hackles are at the beginning and end of the year. 
 
 The nomenclature of hackles is somewhat un- 
 certain, and without the aid of colour it is not 
 easy to impart to the novice the ideas attached 
 even to the more definite terms with which we 
 are provided. Nevertheless, the subject must not 
 remain untouched. , 
 
 Red, as applied to hackles, of course, means 
 " foxy ' red, and the darkest and glossiest shade, 
 which is much in demand, is generally called 
 " dark red game," being best obtained from a 
 cock of the same designation. The palest and 
 most yellowish shades of red are described as 
 ginger. 
 
 The term " dun " refers to a dingy brown or 
 mouse colour, with its darker and lighter shades, 
 of which the fly dresser sees a great number. 
 
 The remaining terms, denoting hackles of one 
 colour only black, cinnamon, &c. are unmis- 
 takable ; but many hackles are of two or more 
 colours combined and distributed in different 
 ways. The more important of these must now be 
 noticed. 
 
 Badger hackles are black or dark dun in the 
 centre, and white or cream at the edge. Honey 
 dun and brassy dun resemble badger hackles as
 
 TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 to distribution of colour, being dark dun in the 
 centre, and of the colour of liquid honey or 
 barley-sugar at the edge. 
 
 Red furnace hackles are black in the centre, 
 black at the extreme edge, and dark red between 
 the edge and centre. In white furnace hackles, 
 white takes the place of the red, otherwise they 
 are the same as the red furnace. 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 Grizzled (also called cuckoo and niarley) 
 hackles have each fibre composed of alternate 
 short strips of light and dark colour ; occasion- 
 ally they are to be found edged with yet another 
 different shade. There is a large variety of 
 grizzled combinations. 
 
 Mr. Bambridge, of Eton, keeps an excellent 
 assortment of all varieties of hackles, and other 
 materials, too, for the matter of that, and will be
 
 ON MATERIALS. 43 
 
 pleased to send a set of samples, returnable, of 
 course, to intending purchasers. For those who 
 have to buy their hackles no arrangement could 
 be more satisfactory, and I feel sure that many 
 will be glad to avail themselves of it. 
 
 With regard to the shape of hackles, I person- 
 ally am not hard to please. For wet flies, so as 
 the feather be clean, not draggled, of the proper 
 size and colour, and fairly durable, I ask for 
 nothing more. For dry flies it is certainly 
 desirable that hackles should be long in the quill 
 and relatively short in the fibre, though this 
 may be obviated by using two hackles for one 
 fly. Mr. Halford expresses some regret at the 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
 Hackle referred to by Mr. Halford as "geometrically 
 perfect." 
 
 impossibility of obtaining what he calls the 
 geometrically perfect hackle (i.e., one whose fibres 
 taper regularly and to an infinitesimal length 
 from root to point) ; but, for my part, I have no 
 such quarrel with nature, and venture to think 
 that for ordinary flies, hackled at the shoulder 
 only, the advantage of such feathers would be 
 expressed by a minus quantity, while, for flies 
 hackled all down the body, it would be of doubtful 
 existence, and merely conventional at the best. 
 
 Having collected our materials, the next problem 
 is how to store them. Our requirements are as 
 follows. The materials must be kept clean and 
 free from mites, &c. They must also be kept 
 separately classified, so as to be reached at a
 
 HOW TO TIE 
 
 moment's notice ; and, as is equally important, 
 the stowing away of them should be made as 
 simple as possible, otherwise all attempts at 
 
 FIG. 16 
 
 proper classification will probably, after a time, be 
 abandoned altogether. All this being considered, 
 a nicely-made cabinet, with some sixty good 
 sized drawers, and stained with some very light
 
 ON MATERIALS. 45 
 
 colour, will be acknowledged as hard to beat. I 
 do not possess such an article myself, but I have 
 a very fair substitute for it. The essential features 
 of this are illustrated. (Fig. 16.) 
 
 The framework is simply a shelved box, with a 
 lid that can be raised upwards, and adjusted at a 
 suitable angle by means of a piece of string, so 
 that it can be xised as a reflector if desired ; and 
 stout cardboard boxes, of the shape illustrated, 
 take the place of properly made wooden drawers. 
 It will be seen that the lids of the boxes may be 
 reversed, so that the latter can be used as open 
 drawers ; and the labels should be arranged as 
 shown in the figure, so as to be easily read when 
 the lids are in this position. 
 
 The boxes should fit the shelves exactly in an 
 up and down direction, but sufficient lateral room 
 should be allowed for the fingers to be inserted 
 on either side of any box so as to remove it 
 easily. Of course, the other boxes on the same 
 shelf are first to be pushed on either side, so that 
 less than one inch of extra space in each shelf will 
 suffice. This space can be padded when one is 
 travelling with full paraphernalia. 
 
 For the above design I am largely indebted to 
 a Fishing Gazette correspondent of some five 
 years ago.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, AND OTHER 
 EECIPES. 
 
 THOSE who have studied the older books on fly 
 dressing will have noticed that, with regard to the 
 subject of the present chapter, one of two alter- 
 natives was generally adopted. Either the author 
 abjured dyes altogether, asserting them to be 
 wanting in permanence, or destructive to material, 
 or he would find it necessary to give such a large 
 number of recipes as would take up more than 
 half of the space devoted to his entire subject. 
 
 The modern writer fortunately has no need to 
 adopt either course. There are now many ex- 
 cellent dyes in the market, made in a great 
 variety of tints, and free from either of the 
 objections mentioned ; so that a hackle dyed the 
 correct colour is, as being dyed, in no way inferior 
 to a self-coloured one, except that its natural 
 grease must generally have been partially re- 
 moved. This disadvantage, however, is of lesser 
 account now that it is customary to oil the hackle 
 of a floater. 
 
 The dyes of which I have had most experience 
 are those made by Messrs. Crawshaw, Fann-street, 
 Aldersgate-street, London. Theirs is the only 
 firm which has catered specially for the wants of 
 fly dressers, having produced a set of " Special 
 Dyes " for our purposes. Our thanks, also, are 
 more immediately due to Mr. Halford for having 
 proposed this idea to Messrs. Crawshaw, and 
 furnished patterns the special colours. Each 
 dye has received Mr. Halford's approval, and
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 47 
 
 therefore may be fully relied upon. They are 
 sold in bottles, Is. each, and the following is the 
 list of colours : Green olive, medium olive, brown 
 olive, green drake, grannom green, slate, iron 
 blue, canary, and red spinner. With this set, 
 and say, a claret and a brown from the ordinary 
 list, the trout fly dresser should be in a position 
 to dye any shade that he will require. 
 
 Of course, in dyeing, as in the other processes 
 of the art, it is a mistake for the amateur to tie 
 himself down to too hard and fast rules. The 
 end aimed at should always be in view. If a 
 clear idea of the desired colour be in the mind, 
 all is likely to go well. The manner of attaining 
 to this idea is tentative for the amateur at least. 
 Blending is often useful, even at a late stage of 
 the process ; at the same time, it is only fair to 
 add that Messrs. Crawshaw's " Special Dyes " 
 are so well and accurately compounded as to 
 remove all necessity for blending, as far as it is 
 possible to do so. 
 
 The directions issued with the dyes are as 
 follows : 
 
 Thoroughly wash all the feathers, &c., before dyeing, 
 in a weak solution of ordinary washing soda in boiling 
 water, so as to remove the grease ; then rinse well in 
 cold water to remove all traces of the soda. Dissolve 
 the dye in boiling water, using for a quart of water 
 about the quantity of dye that can be taken up on the 
 point of an ordinary penknife, stir thoroughly until 
 dissolved, then put in the material to be dyed, and keep 
 stirring until the required shade is obtained. All the 
 colours, with the exception of the canary, will require 
 a little vinegar or other acid to be added to the dye 
 bath, in order to fully bring out and fix the colour. The 
 acid should be added after the feathers have been in the 
 dye-bath for a short time. 
 
 When fully dyed wash the feathers in cold water, and 
 dip them for a few minutes in a weak solution of alum 
 say, about \oi. to a quart of water. This last pro- 
 cess will fix the colours, and make them fast.
 
 48 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 For the acetiser, instead of vinegar, I some- 
 times use very dilute vitriol ; and, as often as not, 
 instead of using the alum, as directed, in a 
 separate mordant bath, after the dye bath, I use 
 it in the dye bath itself. This change may not 
 be an improvement, but I have not found it in 
 any way detrimental, and as it is often important 
 to be able to dry hackles at short notice, any 
 simplification or shortening of the process will 
 be welcome. 
 
 With this very end in view, I have devised a 
 simple centrifugal machine and colander com- 
 bined, which I have had in use for some time, 
 and which I should not care to be without. It 
 consists of a somewhat heavy colander of per- 
 forated galvanised sheet iron, with a bottom of 
 sheet tin not perforated. The latter is overlaid 
 outside with sheet lead, and the whole colander 
 weighs about Alb. A steel shaft, pointed at the 
 lower end, protrudes a short distance through the 
 centre of the bottom, and is soldered to it. It 
 also rises an inch or so above the level of the rim 
 of the colander. 
 
 The frame in which the colander revolves 
 resembles a large tin mug, a vessel as common in 
 Ireland as it is rare in England. The bottom of 
 this is also weighted with sheet lead, and it is 
 mounted on three small legs. The middle of one 
 side of this " mug " is cut away, as shown in the 
 figure. Inlaid in the bottom of this frame is a 
 small, hard steel step, in which the lower end of 
 the shaft revolves ; and a bearing, also of steel, 
 and detachable as shown, keeps the shaft in an 
 upright position. A perforated tin lid, fitting 
 inside the colander, and having a hole in the 
 centre just large enough to allow the shaft to 
 pass through it, is also added, to prevent the 
 shaft from rising out of the step, and also to 
 relieve the colander and shaft, when revolving
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 49 
 
 Colander alone. Machine ready for action. 
 
 Sectional drawing. Machine complete showing 
 
 open side of frame. 
 
 Steel step 
 (shown in sec- 
 tion)and pointed 
 end of shaft. 
 
 Perforated tin lid to 
 fit inside colander.
 
 50 HOW TO TIB FLIES. 
 
 rapidly, from any strain that could be caused by 
 imperfect balance. A piece of stout thread or 
 fine twine, waxed for preference, with a knot at 
 cither end, to keep it from untwisting, completes 
 the apparatus. 
 
 Since the first publication of these pages in the 
 Fishing Gazette, the manufacture of this machine 
 has been taken up by Messrs. Holtzapffel, of 
 13-14, New Bond Street, W., from whom they may 
 now be purchased. They can be had to order, 
 either in copper or japanned tin, the price in the 
 first named metal being nineteen, and in the latter, 
 fourteen shillings. 
 
 The feathers to be dyed are placed in the 
 colander, which is then successively immersed in 
 the soda bath, dye bath, and mordant bath, and 
 washed under the tap when necessary. After the 
 mordant bath and final washing, the lid is fitted 
 on the colander, the colander placed in its frame, 
 with the shaft accurately inserted in the step, 
 and, finally, the bearing rod slid into place. The 
 closed-in side, or shield, of the frame should be 
 turned towards the operator, and the handle 
 should then be on his left side, and partially above 
 the lid of the colander. It should be grasped in 
 the second, third, and fourth fingers of the left 
 hand, leaving the thumb and forefinger free for 
 other work. 
 
 One end of the string should now be taken 
 firmly in the right hand, and held more lightly a 
 few inches lower down, between the finger and 
 thumb of the left. A quick turn of the right 
 hand round that part of the shaft which protrudes 
 through the bearing now passes the string firmly 
 once around it. The end of the string held in the 
 right hand is then pulled slowly at first, and 
 rapidly at the finish the string being allowed to 
 elide through the finger and thumb of the left 
 hand, but a small tension being all the while sus-
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 51 
 
 tained. This will put the machine into rapid 
 motion, which can be kept up as long as is desired, 
 in the same manner as it was begun. The 
 greater part of their moisture will be immediately 
 thrown off the feathers, and after a short time 
 they will be completely dried. If convenient, the 
 machine should be placed closely in front of the 
 fire while it is spinning. The rapid rotation will 
 prevent the feathers from being scorched, and 
 they may be thus dried in about three minutes. 
 The tin shield on one side of the frame serves 
 both to reflect the heat back on the feathers, and 
 to prevent the drops of water, which at the first are 
 thrown off profusely, from reaching the operator's 
 clothes. Without a fire feathers may be dried 
 perfectly in about ten minutes. My machine runs 
 for six minutes, and at a high speed for about 
 four. When the feathers are dry, the colander 
 should be removed from its frame, and turned 
 upside down in the hands. The operator should 
 then blow round the side, so as to cause the 
 feathers to fall loosely into the perforated lid, 
 whence they can be easily removed to their 
 proper destination. It is no easy matter to 
 remove small feathers from the colander while 
 they are wet, so that in many ways my invention 
 will be found a great saving of time and labour. 
 The common method of drying feathers is to 
 shake them up in a band-box in front of the fire. 
 A single hackle may be quickly dried by stroking 
 its fibres alternately backwards and forwards. 
 
 For vessels in which to use the soda, dye, and 
 alum, I generally employ common 21b. jam pots, 
 partially immersed in a saucepan of boiling water. 
 A few folds of paper should be placed beneath the 
 jam pot, to guard against the possibility of 
 its cracking, by preventing the heat from passing 
 directly to it from the bottom of the saucepan, 
 and steam from collecting beneath it, should its 
 D 2
 
 52 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 bottom not be perfectly flat. The colander of 
 my centrifugal machine is of such dimensions as 
 to fit loosely into the jam pot. For a stirring rod, 
 a piece of stick will do, but I find a large pair of 
 watchmaker's tweezers about as handy a thing as 
 one could use for this purpose. With them a 
 pinch of dye of the correct amount can be easily 
 taken from the bottle and stirred into the bath, 
 and a hackle can at any time be readily removed 
 from the colander to be examined. The simplest 
 way to dissolve any of the substances used in 
 dyeing in their various baths is to place them in 
 the colander, and then to raise and lower it 
 in the water after the manner of churning. 
 A similar plan may be adopted to thoroughly 
 saturate the feathers if any difficulty is found in 
 this matter. 
 
 White or grizzled hackles should almost in- 
 variably be selected for dyeing, though those of 
 other colours have often been successfully treated. 
 It is a fortunate circumstance that plain white 
 hackles are about the most common of any. 
 
 When dyeing peacock herl quills, the whole 
 " eye " part of the feather is treated entire before 
 the herls are scraped. To examine the quills at 
 any time, press the feather, close to its shaft, flat 
 between the finger and thumb, or hold it on 
 a level with the eyes. 
 
 Bleaching is, fortunately, not a necessary 
 adjunct to fly dressing, except, perhaps, in the case 
 of peacock herl quills, and straw for the bodies of 
 May Flies. The following is a good bleaching 
 mixture for either of these : 
 
 Peroxide of hydrogen (H 2 O 2 ) -- 10 parts 
 Liquid ammonia ... ... ... ... 1 part 
 
 Water 10 parts 
 
 In bleaching quills, the whole " eye " should 
 be immersed for at least twenty-four hours, 
 and then allowed to dry slowly, when the effect
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 53 
 
 of the bleaching will appear. The solution does 
 not keep, so it should be mixed freshly before 
 use. Even the peroxide of hydrogen unmixed 
 with ammonia is apt to lose its bleaching pro- 
 perties to become plain water, in fact from too 
 much exposure. The solution of peroxide of 
 hydrogen in ether is said to be much more stable, 
 but I have not any experience of it. 
 
 A large glass-stoppered bottle is a convenient 
 vessel in which to vise the bleaching fluid. The 
 ammonia fumes have a very potent effect on the 
 eyes and nostrils, so it is well to keep them 
 within bounds. 
 
 Sulphurous acid (not sulphuric) is another 
 bleaching fluid especially good for straw, and 
 used by manufacturers both for it and feathers. 
 It is a saturated solution of sulphurous acid gas 
 in water, and obtainable from all chemists. The 
 straw or other material is simply steeped in it till 
 bleached to the degree required. Bright gimp, 
 immersed in the same fluid, may be dulled as 
 much as may be desired, without damage to its 
 floss silk core. 
 
 The next recipe on my list is one for a liquid 
 and transparent wax. It is of my own invention, 
 and I believe it to be the simplest in existence. 
 I leave my readers to judge for themselves 
 whether it is not also the best. In the matter of 
 wax every fly dresser appears to be something of 
 a faddist, and, from what I have written, it may 
 be inferred that I do not claim to be an exception. 
 My recipe is as follows : 
 
 Melt together in a jam pot, or other vessel, im- 
 mersed in boiling water (and safeguarded from 
 cracking in the manner I have already described), 
 some of the best and purest white or amber resin 
 with about the same volume of turpentine. VoilA 
 tout ! The wax is made. It should not be poured 
 into water, or pulled about with the hands, as is
 
 54 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 recommended in other recipes, but should be 
 poured direct into whatever receptacle is chosen 
 for it. In my own experience I have found none 
 so convenient as the collapsible tubes in which oil 
 paints are sold. These may be obtained from 
 Messrs. Winsor and Newton, artists' colourmen, 
 Rathbone Place, London. The price is Is. 6d. per 
 d*ozen, postage extra. The advantages of these 
 tubes are, that when closed they are perfectly air- 
 tight, and that even when they are open a very 
 small surface of the liquid is exposed. The tube 
 may be laid open upon the table without fear of 
 spilling, and the amount of wax taken on the tip 
 of the finger may be controlled with the greatest 
 nicety, Immunity from breakage is another 
 advantage which the tubes possess. 
 
 The advantages which I claim for the wax are, 
 that it is more transparent than any other at 
 present known, that it is free from the faults of 
 many other waxes brifrtleness, hardness, and the 
 like, and that it is quite insoluble in water, and 
 holds well, even when the fly is saturated with 
 paraffin, a test, by the way, which, since the 
 introduction of eyed hooks, few flies are called 
 upon to bear. 
 
 To clean the vessel in which the wax has been 
 prepared, the following mixture will be found 
 useful : 
 
 Paraffin oil 3 parts 
 
 Washing soda 2 parts 
 
 Water... ... ... ... ... ... 5 parts 
 
 This should be shaken well round the inside, 
 and rubbed on the rim and outside of the vessel. 
 If this is done before the wax has time to harden, 
 all traces of the latter may be easily removed. 
 The above mixture, which is in reality a liquid 
 soap, is very good for scouring purposes generally. 
 Being perfectly soluble in water, it does not leave 
 the taint of paraffin behind it.
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 55 
 
 To cleanse the fingers after waxmg the tying 
 silk, a drop of turpentine is as good as anything 
 else. I keep a collapsible tube filled with 
 turpentine in the same box with that containing 
 the wax. 
 
 Of recipes for preserving material from moths, 
 the number is as great as the greater number 
 are useless. Taxidermists wash the skins they 
 set up with a weak solution of corrosive sub- 
 limate, and Mr. Halford recommends fly dressers 
 to follow the same plan. It is probably the 
 most permanent and efficient preventative known, 
 but great care must be exercised in using it, 
 as the corrosive sublimate (bisulphide of mercury) 
 is a most virulent poison, in whatever way it is 
 introduced into the system. It was formerly 
 used for washing sheep, but this practice, 
 I believe, has been abandoned as too dangerous. 
 
 Albo-carbon (naphthaline) is mentioned by the 
 Eev. Theodore Wood as a good preservative. It 
 should be kept in the boxes along with the 
 feathers. 
 
 " Benzine Collas," as a destroyer of the moths 
 a whatever stage of life they may be from the 
 egg to the perfect insect has the authority of the 
 same eminent entomologist ; also that of the late 
 Mr. Frank Buckland. A little should be poured 
 on a pad of cotton wool, the latter placed in the 
 box with the feathers, and the lid closed tightly 
 over it. The operation should be repeated at 
 intervals of a few months. 
 
 In several portions of " Curiosities of Natural 
 History," I find Mr. Buckland strongly and 
 unreservedly recommending an herb called 
 "feverfew." He says that moths "will not go 
 near it." At the time he wrote it was sold at 
 Covent Garden, but I cannot say whether it is 
 still to be obtained. Perhaps some London 
 reader will make the experiment. I learn from
 
 56 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 the " Materia Medica " that it is akin to the 
 chamomile, and am therefore trying the virtue of 
 chamomile flowers, but up to the present time 
 I cannot say whether they would be of use or no. 
 
 The last recipe with which I shall deal relates 
 to the last process through which a dry-fly goes 
 that which so markedly increases its powers of 
 staying above water, and which is commonly 
 referred to as the "oil tip." The ordinary 
 process, which was first made public in the 
 Fishing Gazette by the late Mr. Andrews, of 
 Guildford, is to soak the fly in paraffin oil, 
 or to brush the wings and hackle with the 
 same. I will not say that I have made any 
 improvement on this process, but from a priori 
 considerations, and from a few experiments which 
 I have made, I venture to think that such is 
 possible. Let me first, by way of preface, attempt 
 an explanation of the theory of the " oil tip," 
 which may be new to many readers of this paper. 
 
 Imprimis, it is necessary to understand that 
 there is a great difference between the molecular 
 structure of the particles at the surface of a fluid 
 and that of those beneath the surface. The 
 cohesive power of the latter is practically nil, 
 whereas that of the former is such as to cause the 
 surface of the liquid to assume all the properties 
 of an elastic skin. This will explain the well- 
 known fact that it is possible to cause a dry and 
 well polished needle to float on water. If the 
 needle be pushed through the skin, it will at once 
 sink to the bottom. Also, if the surface of the 
 needle be rough, the water will creep entirely over 
 it and the supporting skin beneath give way. The 
 needle being thus brought again beneath the 
 surface, will again sink. The case of the dry fly 
 not paraffined, and made of feathers which have 
 lost their natural oil, is similar to this latter. The 
 stretched elastic skin creeps over the feathers, and
 
 DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 5? 
 
 pulls the fly beneath the surface. Oiling the 
 feathers simply prevents the water from spreading 
 itself over them since the surface of water and oil 
 will not adhere and so enables the fly to float for 
 a much longer time. Thus, the "oil tip," impor- 
 tant as it is in aiding the angler to dry his fly 
 when it is off the water, plays an equally 
 important part when the fly is on the water. 
 
 In physical laboratories paraffin wax is generally 
 used instead of paraffin oil to baffle the clinging 
 properties of water, and it was this fact that first 
 suggested to me the following slight modification 
 of the method in vogue among fly fishers. 
 
 Put a few pieces of paraffin wax into a small 
 but wide-mouthed bottle, and add about twice the 
 volume of paraffin oil. Place the bottle in hot 
 water, and shake it now and then till the wax and 
 oil are thoroughly mixed together. Now immerse 
 the flies for a few minutes (under the exhausted 
 receiver of an air pump, should such be available), 
 then take them out, and press them gently between 
 the folds of a cloth to remove the superfluous 
 dressing. 
 
 This method, so far as I can judge, seems to 
 produce a more permanent result than does the use 
 of the oil alone, and not to be inferior in any other 
 respect. I fancy it would also be a good way to 
 increase the floating powers of the line. 
 
 It may be worthy of mention that where dis- 
 tillery refuse is thrown into water, it has the 
 property of so diminishing the strength of the 
 latter's elastic skin, that it may be found almost 
 impossible to keep the fly afloat the " oil tip " 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 D 3
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 ON THE VICE AND TOOLS. 
 
 As I have already had occasion to remark, it 
 will be a mistake on the part of the amateur to 
 neglect to avail himself of such mechanical aids 
 as may be within his reach. Of these, the vice is 
 especially useful, indeed, in the more difficult 
 
 Fio. 18. The Tacklemaker's Vice.
 
 ON THE VICE AND TOOLS. 
 
 59 
 
 styles of fly dressing, well-nigh indispensable, so 
 that to purchase a suitable vice is one of the first 
 steps that the beginner is recommended to take. 
 
 There are three vices offered for his choice. The 
 first is known as the " tacklemaker's vice " 
 (Fig. 18), and is a good serviceable article for 
 all-round work, but the shape of the jaws, though 
 excellent for holding the hook firmly, is not the 
 
 Front View. Side View. 
 
 Fio. 19. Upper Portion of Mr. Halford's Vice. 
 
 best calculated to give freedom to the fingers. 
 The second is Mr. Halford's vice (Figs. 19 and 21), 
 which combines all the best features of the tackle- 
 maker's vice with a few important improvements, 
 the details of which will be readily comprehended 
 from the figures. It is particulaily to be noticed 
 that the height of the vice is adjust/able and that 
 attention has been given to the important feature 
 of portability.
 
 HOW 1O TIE PLIES. 
 
 For trout fly work alone, however, Mr. Hawks- 
 ley's vice (Figs. 20 and 21) will probably be found 
 the most convenient of all. Mr. Halford himself 
 was, I believe, the first to publicly profess this 
 opinion. 
 
 As will be seen from the figure, the Hawksley 
 vice is virtually a fixed pair of pliers which, by 
 the way, remind one unpleasantly of those used 
 by the dentist with a sliding collar (A) to hold 
 
 Front View. Side View. 
 
 FIG. W. Upper Portion of Mr. Hawkriey's Vice. 
 
 the jaws firmly together. To fix the hook in the 
 rice, place it in position with the right hand, 
 and with the left grasp the pliers and take hold of 
 the hook after the ordinary and improved fashion. 
 The collar will descend automatically by its own 
 weight, and jam at the sticking point. A very 
 strong permanent grip will result if the wire of 
 the hook be fine. When the hook is too big, 
 and the wire consequently too thick, it will be
 
 ON THE VICE AND TOOLS. 61 
 
 obvious to those of a mechanical turn of mind, 
 that the jaws will not be able to close up suffi- 
 ciently, or make a sufficiently small angle with 
 each other to obtain a good hold. When it is 
 desired to release the hook, the pliers should once 
 more be tightly grasped in the four fingers of 
 the left hand, and the collar pushed upwards 
 with the thumb ; the hook, or completed fly, is 
 then removed with the right hand, the grip of the 
 left hand on the pliers being simultaneously 
 slackened. The spring (B) will now keep the 
 jaws of the pliers open and ready to receive 
 another hook. Altogether it is scarcely conceiv- 
 able that any arrangement for holding a hook 
 firmly and in a convenient position could be 
 quicker and simpler in its action than Mr. 
 Hawksley's. Of course, there would be no diffi- 
 culty in making a vice of this kind for use in 
 salmon fly dressing, but I have thought it right 
 to explain that one suited for trout fly work 
 might not be well adapted for this and other uses 
 to which the purchaser might wish to apply it. 
 
 It is now more than two years since I advocated, 
 in the Fishing Gazette, the use of rubber clips to 
 keep the tying silk taut and out of the way at such 
 stages in the dressing of a fly where it is convenient 
 to do so, and my experience of them since then 
 has tended only to strengthen my conviction that 
 they are exceedingly useful. The form of fitting, 
 however, which I originally recommended, though 
 serviceable enough as a home-made article, is now 
 superseded in my estimation by the stronger and 
 more compact form illustrated below, and which 
 Messrs. Holtzapffel, of 53, Haymarket, the 
 makers of both Mr. Halford's and Mr. Hawks- 
 ley's fly dressing vices, are prepared to fit at 
 a small cost to any pattern of vice, old or 
 new. (Fig. 21). 
 
 As will be seen, the fitting is adjustable, and
 
 62 
 
 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 occupies such a position as never to be in the 
 way, but to be readily reached when it is to be 
 brought into service. The silk should first be 
 pulled down taut, so as to press against the metal 
 
 FIG. 21. Clamp of Halford or Hawksley Vice, with Athenian 
 rubber clip fitting, lower portion of vice pillar and hook 
 for use in looping, &c. A B Lower portion of vice 
 pillar. X Y Metal slide of rubber clip fitting. S Screw 
 to secure vice pillar. N Nut to secure metal slide. 
 Y Rubber clip. T T Tying silk. H Hook turning 
 freely around pillar of vice. 
 
 The position of the metal slide may be readily changed 
 from the horizontal to the vertical, and clamp and slide thus 
 rendered conveniently portable without being detached.
 
 ON THE VICE AND TOOLS. 
 
 63 
 
 slide, and then pulled steadily to the right. The 
 latter action will force it beneath the rubber clip, 
 when it will be held firmly between the rubber 
 and the metal. 
 
 The tools necessary in fly dressing are few and 
 simple. A small pair of scissors and a pair of 
 watchmaker's tweezers (both with sharp points), 
 a dubbing needle, and a pair of hackle pliers are 
 all that will be required. 
 
 FIG. 22. The Fly Dresser's Tools. A Hackle pliers. 
 B Dubbins? needle. C Straight-Waded scissors. D 
 Curved-bladed scissors. E Watchmaker's tweezers. 
 
 The scissors may either be of the ordinary 
 straight bladed pattern, or they may have blades 
 curved so as to be capable of cutting in a curved 
 line. The latter kind is especially used for trim- 
 ming May Fly wings into shape, and is perhaps 
 to be preferred for all the ordinary purposes of 
 fly dressing.
 
 64 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 The watchmaker's tweezers will be found 
 extremely useful for picking hooks out of the 
 box in which they are kept, for splitting the 
 wings of a floating fly, and for a variety of other 
 purposes. Their usefulness in dyeing has already 
 been mentioned. 
 
 The dubbing needle is simply an ordinary 
 sewing needle stuck eye foremost into a suitable 
 handle. The latter may be bought at any hard- 
 ware shop, and the needle fixed by means of a 
 pair of pliers. 
 
 The hackle pliers are illustrated in Fig. 22. 
 They are generally made of brass or steel wire, 
 and are constructed on a principle contrary to 
 that of ordinary pliers ; for in order to open their 
 jaws their sides are compressed, and when the 
 point of the hackle is admitted the pressure is 
 removed. The jaws then automatically close and 
 take a very firm grip of the hackle, so that, in 
 effect, the hackle and hackle pliers become tem- 
 porarily united. Thus a small hackle may be 
 wound as easily as a large one.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 
 
 AT the outset of the present chapter it may be 
 pardonable to reiterate the truism, that it is im- 
 possible to dress a fly true to nature without 
 either a present model from which to work, or an 
 accurate recollection of an absent one. The 
 former alternative is, of course, the better ; and 
 before the latter can be employed the fly must 
 have been studied, both as a whole and as a 
 structure of parts studied, in fact, with a view 
 to imitation. 
 
 In " The Story of Ung" a short ballad by Mr. 
 Rudyard Kipling, an old " maker of pictures," 
 sings of the aurochs that : 
 
 " Men have not time at the houghing to count hie curls 
 aright." 
 
 And it is likely that, due to a similar cause, 
 there may be much unsuspected "haziness" 
 among fly fishers, as to what a natural fly is 
 really like. 
 
 The fly dresser is, then, advised to avail himself 
 of every opportunity of studying the form and 
 colouring of flies, and to have always living 
 models when they are obtainable. Meanwhile, 
 the figures below may suffice to give a rough, 
 general idea of some of the principal forms of 
 insect life with which we shall have to deal. 
 
 In the following descriptions of the various 
 methods of trout fly manufacture, I shall assume 
 that the beginner (to whom I address myself) is 
 right-handed. If the case be otherwise, it will not
 
 66 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 be difficult to make the necessary modifications 
 in my directions. 
 
 The vice should be screwed to the bench or 
 table in such a position as to receive plenty of 
 light. If possible, table and vice should be so 
 arranged that strong light, as from a window, 
 should come from behind the operator; while 
 plenty of diffused light i.e.. that coming from 
 
 FIG. 23. 
 
 white or light coloured objects should fall on 
 his work in other directions. If a white car- 
 penter's apron be worn, it will be found a great 
 convenience in many ways, and will be of assis- 
 tance in the matter at present under consideration. 
 I suppose that most persons understand the 
 difference between what is known as " right- 
 handed " and what as " left-handed " winding ;
 
 HOW TO DBES8 A WET FLY. 67 
 
 also what is meant by winding " towards the 
 right," and what by winding " towards the left." 
 As, however, these terms are likely to be of great 
 use to us in the near future, I have thought it 
 well to explain them by means of the illustrations 
 below. 
 
 Let us now begin the dressing of our wet fly, 
 which some may think has been too long deferred. 
 
 METHOD No. 1. 
 
 Our first exercise will be to dress an upwing 
 dun or spinner. Fix the hook (No. 2 will be a 
 
 'wteet' Hfvn^n. 
 
 ^-*fT' --n*r *'t"*t-t 
 
 j\ J^ 
 
 >u*n^r f.// " 
 
 FIG. 24. 
 
 The shorter end of the tying silk is marked E. The arrows 
 indicate the directions in which the winding progresses. 
 
 good size to commence with) in the vice, in the 
 position shown in Fig. 25, and, if such a further 
 aid to the eyesight be felt desirable, lay a piece 
 of white paper on the table, so that the hook 
 may be outlined against it. 
 
 Wax a length of about lOin. of tying silk by 
 taking a little liquid wax on the tip of the fore- 
 finger and drawing the silk slowly several times 
 between forefinger and thumb. Cleanse the finger 
 and thumb with turpentine and wipe them on a
 
 68 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 cloth, which should be kept for the purpose, or on 
 the apron referred to aboTe. 
 
 Now, commencing from a point about Jin. from 
 the end of the shank, wind right-handed,* about 
 six turns towards the left, then back over the 
 same six turns towards the right. Fasten silk in 
 clip, and cut away end (E). 
 
 If dressing flies to gut, take a length of the 
 latter, being careful that it is perfectly round and 
 otherwise of good quality, and flatten one end 
 between the teeth, so that the length of the 
 flattened end may be about one-half that of the 
 shank of the hook. 
 
 Lay the flattened end horizontally beneath the 
 
 Pio. 26. 
 
 shank (Fig. 26). Remove silk from clip, and 
 wind towards the left, till the straight part of the 
 shank is entirely covered (Fig. 27). Fasten silk 
 in clip. 
 
 Take the two fibres to imitate the whisks of the 
 fly between the finger and thumb of the right 
 
 * I say right-handed only to fix the ideas. Of course, the 
 left-handed method of winding may be adopted if it be 
 preferred.
 
 HOW TO DEESS A WET FLY. 
 
 69 
 
 hand, the tips of the fibres pointing in the same 
 direction as the forefinger. Lay them with the 
 roots touching the left-hand portion of the upper 
 side of the shank, and the points projecting to 
 the left (Fig. 27). 
 
 FIG. 27. 
 Whisks tied in, and ribbing tinsel about to be tied in. 
 
 Carefully adjust the length of the part to be 
 allowed to project, according as the fly to be 
 imitated is a Dun or a Spinner (Vide Fig. 23, A. 
 and B., also note, page 79). Now press the shank 
 
 FIG. 28. 
 Whisks and ribbing tinsel tied in, and floss about to be tied in. 
 
 of the hook, together with the fibres, placed in posi- 
 tion as above, between the forefinger and thumb of 
 the left hand. Remove the silk from clip with right 
 hand, and take two more turns towards the left,
 
 70 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 bringing the silk up and down between the tips 
 of the left thumb and forefinger. Now remove 
 the left hand from the hook, and take another 
 turn of the silk towards the left, this time 
 bringing it not over, but behind the fibres (Fig. 
 27). Then fasten silk in clip, and trim root ends 
 of fibres. 
 
 Next tie in the ribbing tinsel (if any) by another 
 turn towards the right, and then (Fig. 28) the 
 floss, or other body material, by a few more turns 
 in the same direction. During these operations 
 the tinsel, or body material, if soft, should be 
 held close to the shank of the hook, between the 
 
 FIG. 29. 
 
 left forefinger and thumb, just as were the 
 whisks at the preceding stage of our present 
 piece of work. 
 
 Fasten silk in clip, and cut away slantwise the 
 exposed end (K) of the body material. Then 
 continue winding towards the right, till the 
 original starting point is reached. Fasten silk 
 in clip. 
 
 Now, with the right hand, wind the strip of 
 body material over the foundation of tying silk, 
 changing for the moment to the left hand, to 
 pass the strip between the pillar of the vice and 
 the length of tying silk, held taut by the rubbe-i 
 clip.
 
 HOW TO DEES8 A WET PLY. 
 
 71 
 
 During the winding, the second, third, and 
 fourth fingers of the left hand should hold the 
 vice lightly, a few inches beneath the jaws, so as 
 to allow the left finger and thumb to rest a little 
 below the shank of the hook, one on either side 
 
 FIG. 30. 
 
 of the vice, in readiness to receive the body 
 material from the right hand once in every turn. 
 When the tying silk is covered, hold the body 
 material above the shank with the right hand 
 (Fig. 30), and with the left remove silk from clip. 
 
 FIG. 31. 
 
 and take a turn over the body material and 
 towards the right. Change tying silk into right 
 hand, and take another turn towards the right 
 and over the body material. Fasten the silk in 
 clip, and cut away hanging strip of body material.
 
 72 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 Wind ribbing tinsel carefully in open spiral 
 turns, fasten with tying silk and cut away end, 
 by same procedure as was used in fastening and 
 cutting away end of body material. Fasten silk 
 in clip. 
 
 Now select a wing or tail feather from which 
 
 FIG. 32. 
 
 to prepare wings. Cut away a piece of the 
 feather web, about three-eighths of an inch broad, 
 i.e., of twice the breadth of which the wings are 
 to be. Hold the severed web in both hands in 
 the position shown (Fig. 32), and move either 
 hand very slightly in the direction indicated by 
 the arrow placed next it. The pressure of the
 
 HOW TO DEESS A WET FIT. 
 
 73 
 
 fingers on the web should be very light during 
 the movement, and at the end of the movement 
 one hand should be removed. Then take hold 
 again with this hand and repeat the process, this 
 time removing the other hand. Continue in like 
 fashion, occasionally pausing to stroke the fibres 
 out straight, until from the form A (Fig. 32) the 
 web assumes the form B. 
 
 FIG. 33. The lower half of the figure illustrates the position 
 of the lines A B and X Y on the left forefinger. It will 
 be understood that the portion of the forefinger is not, 
 shown in its proper position nor, of course, in its proper 
 relative size. 
 
 The fibres should be carefully stroked together, 
 where they threaten to separate. 
 
 Now double the web as shown in the figure, 
 leaving the light or dark side outermost, 
 according to choice. 
 
 The wings are now ready to be tied in. They 
 should be taken by the roots between the finger
 
 74 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 and thumb of the right hand, and laid on edge 
 along the upper side of the shank of hook, so that 
 their length may be correctly apportioned. 
 
 Then place the tips of the left finger and 
 thumb on either side of the hook-shank and 
 wings, so as to hold the latter in position. 
 
 Remove silk from clip with the right hand. 
 Then, opening the left thumb and forefinger a 
 little at the tips, by concentrating the pressure on 
 the line A B (Fig. 33), pass the silk up between 
 the tip of the thumb and near wing, and hold it 
 taut for a moment perpendicularly above the 
 
 FG. 
 
 shank. Now concentrate the pressure of the left 
 thumb and forefinger on the line X Y (Fig. 33), 
 and pass the tying silk down between the off 
 wing and the tip of the left forefinger. Now, 
 pressing, with the left thumb and forefinger, on 
 both tying silk and wings, draw down the tying 
 silk slowly and firmly with the right hand, thus 
 contracting the stumps of the wings, and binding 
 them on the upper surface of the shank. Pass 
 the silk two or three more times around the 
 stumps of the wings, to secure the latter more 
 completely, before removing the pressure of the 
 left forefinger and thumb. Fasten silk in clip
 
 HOW TO DKESS A WET FLY. 
 
 75 
 
 and trim away the exposed stumps of the wings 
 with the scissors. 
 
 When dressing flies to gut or on down-eyed 
 hooks, this is quite an easy matter, but when 
 dressing on up-eyed hooks, it is more difficult. In 
 this latter case the simplest plan within my 
 experience is as follows : Hold the scissors on the 
 right forefinger and thumb, but with the blades 
 pointing inwards towards the elbow. Now set 
 the points astride the stumps of the wings and 
 
 upper side of the shank, and, holding the wings 
 between the left forefinger and thumb, draw the 
 scissors upwards, at the same time compressing 
 them, so as to cut away as much of the stumps as 
 possible. Repeat the operation as often as may 
 be necessary. 
 
 Eemove silk from clip, and continue winding 
 towards the right, till the end of the shank is 
 completely covered. 
 
 E 2
 
 76 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 Then wind back towards the left, as far as the 
 roots of the wings. Change the silk into the left 
 hand, and taking the tips of the wings between 
 the right forefinger and thumb, raise them up 
 
 FIG. 36. 
 
 from the shank of the hook and pass the .silk 
 behind them. Fasten silk in clip. 
 
 Now prepare a hackle of suitable length of 
 fibre, by stripping off the down on either side of 
 the root end of .the quill.
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 77 
 
 Then, holding the hackle by the tip, lay the 
 bare stem obliquely across the under side of the 
 shank, pointing " half- right," and the inner or less 
 glossy side of the fibres facing inwards towards 
 the shank. 
 
 Fasten in hackle, i.e., bind stem to shank, 
 with two turns of the tying silk towards the left. 
 Fasten tying silk in clip, and cut away exposed 
 end of hackle stem. Fasten hackle pliers on 
 point of hackle. 
 
 Now wind hackle two or three turns towards 
 the right, changing hands, as in winding body 
 material, and keeping the stem of the hackle taut 
 during the operation. Bring the turns alternately 
 behind and in front of the strained length of 
 tying silk, always, however, pulling the point of 
 the hackle a little to the right when it is passing 
 underneath the shank. Now, holding the un- 
 wound part of hackle taut, and pointing " half- 
 right," fasten down the wound part with two 
 turns of the tying silk, towards the right and in 
 front of the wings. Fasten silk in clip. Cut 
 away closely the unwound remnant of the hackle. 
 Remove silk from clip. 
 
 The next step is to fasten in the tying silk by 
 means of what is called the " whip finish." 
 
 All kinds of lapping, whether on rods, cricket 
 bats, or any other such articles, are finished by 
 this neat and secure fastening. The manner of 
 making it is a little difficult to describe in words, 
 but perhaps it will be understood from the figures 
 below. These are intended simply to illustrate 
 the whip finish, and have no other relation to the 
 figures which have preceded them. Thus a 
 portion of the shank of the hook is shown bare, 
 though, in the method of fly dressing with which 
 we are now dealing, the whole shank is covered 
 with tying silk, before the time for making the 
 whip finish is reached.
 
 78 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 To make the whip finish : 
 
 Raise a part of the silk above the shank, as in 
 Fig. 37, and fix the end in the rubber clip. 
 
 Form the loop as in Fig. 38. 
 
 Pull the gut through this loop, and wind with 
 the part of the silk marked ABC, one turn 
 
 Fia. 37. 
 
 OOGOOI 
 
 FIG. 41. 
 
 towards the right. Repeat this operation a 
 few times. The work will now appear as in 
 Fig. 39. 
 
 Insert the point of the dubbing needle in the 
 loop, and hold it taut, as in Fig. 40. 
 
 Remove from clip and pull silk home, as in
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLT. 79 
 
 Fig. 41, and finally cut away as closely as possible 
 the loose end of the tying silk. In fly dressing, 
 four turns of the tying silk are sufficient to form 
 the whip finish. When the fly is dressed to gut, 
 the last turn of the whip finish should not reach 
 the end of the shank. It will then be almost 
 impossible for it to come undone, and, when the 
 head of the fly is varnished, the abrupt ending of 
 the outermost layer of silk lapping will not be 
 noticeable. 
 
 Our fly is now complete, save for the varnishing 
 of the head and the final adjustment of the fibres 
 of the hackle and wings. Coachbuilders' copal 
 varnish is the best kind to use, but it requires at 
 least twenty-four hours to harden properly. 
 Shellac varnish, made by dissolving orange shellac 
 in rectified spirits of wine, dries almost instan- 
 taneously, and is excellent when the fly is wanted 
 for immediate use. A tiny sable hair brush is 
 perhaps the best thing with which to apply the 
 varnish, but the dubbing needle or a wooden 
 match pointed at the end will do very well as a 
 makeshift. 
 
 In giving the fly its finishing touches, whether 
 at the worktable or at the riverside, many 
 amateurs are inclined to forget that it is intended 
 to be a copy of a natural insect, rather than of a 
 shop-made artificial. They should not endeavour 
 to bring the hackle fibres into a compact bunch, 
 in the same plane with the hook, but should 
 rather spread them out, pointing fore and aft and 
 on either side, as do the legs of the natural fly. 
 
 NOTE. I append sketches of aduii (the last state but 
 one of the upwing fly familiar to us all) and of a spinner 
 (the complete and reproductive state of the same 
 fly). The two sketches (A and B, Fig. 23) appearing on 
 page 66 are unsatisfactory, as they do not illustrate the 
 chief distinctive features, nor the correct proportions of 
 duns and spinners.
 
 80 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 The wings of a dun are more or less opaque, and are, 
 for the most part, well imitated by the feathers usually 
 employed. The wings of a tpinner, on the contrary, 
 
 are, as a rule, like films of crystal, either smooth or 
 frosted fas it were), to give an effect which might 
 perhaps be described as " scaly sheeniness." 
 
 To the best of my judgment, the proportions impor- 
 tant to fly dressers of these upwings appear somewhat 
 as follows : 
 
 Of both dun and spinner, the length of the wings from 
 base to tip is equal to the total length of head, thorax, 
 and abdomen (body). 
 
 Of a dun, the length of the whisks is to the total length 
 of head, thorax, and abdomen, as 7 to 6, approximately. 
 
 In a spinner this same ratio is, approximately, as 7 1 o 4.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 
 
 Method No. 2. 
 
 THE following method of dressing a wet fly is 
 that commonly used by professionals. Male 
 hands, as a rule, dispense with the vice, holding 
 the hook at the bend tightly between the left 
 forefinger and thumb ; but whether a vice be 
 
 FIG. 42. 
 
 used or no, the method, in its essential details, is 
 always the same. 
 
 I trust that I may safely use, from now on, a 
 shorter and more technical style of description. 
 
 Commence as before, and continue till body is 
 formed and secured. Tie in hackle as before by 
 two turns towards the left, and clip away bar e 
 E 3
 
 82 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 stem. Wind two or three turns of hackle, the 
 first in front of silk, the second behind, and the 
 third (if there be any) in front. Fasten off 
 hackle by two turns of silk towards the right. 
 Clip away unwound tip. With dubbing needle 
 
 'Fin. 43. 
 
 adjust hackle fibres, coaxing some of those which 
 stand out above shank of hook to lie on either 
 side. Press the fibres back. Prepare and tie in 
 wings, and finish as before. 
 
 FIG. 41. 
 
 This same method is used in dressing down- 
 wing flies, the hackle fibres left on the upper side 
 of the shank after treatment with the dubbing 
 needle should, in this case, be clipped away. The 
 following methed, however, is to be preferred .-
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET PLY. 
 
 83 
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DOWNWINQ. 
 
 Commence as before, but a little nearer the 
 bend of hook, and, of course, omit whisks. Form 
 body as before. Prepare and tie in wings. Clip 
 
 Fio. 46. 
 
 stumps and continue winding to end of shank, 
 tying in feelers at head, as whisks were tied in, in 
 preceding example. Wind back again to roots of 
 wings as before. Split the two wings apart with 
 the watchmaker's tweezers, and, taking the tip of 
 either wing separately between the left forefinger
 
 84 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 and thumb, draw it down a little on its own side 
 of the shank. Now place the hackle in the 
 position indicated in Fig. 43, and holding both 
 wings, hackle, and the shank of the hook between 
 left forefinger and thumb, fasten the wings in a 
 
 FIG. 46. 
 
 lie-down position, and tie in hackle by means of 
 two turns of the tying silk towards the left. 
 Wind hackle and finish as before. 
 
 How TO MAKE A Buzz FLY. 
 
 Commence as in method No. 2, but leave less of 
 the end of the shank bare. Continue as in method 
 No. 2 till hackle is wound and secured.
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 
 
 85 
 
 Clip unused tip of hackle, and wind silk 
 towards the right to end of shank. Wind back 
 towards the left till hackle is reached, and then 
 form whip finish as before. 
 
 How TO DRESS A PALMER. 
 The term palmer, as Eonalds tells us, applies 
 primarily to the caterpillars of certain moths, 
 notably to that of the Arctia caja, or garden 
 tiger moth. They are well known in most districts 
 under the name of woolly bears, and are frequently 
 
 FIG. 47. 
 
 to be seen crawling on the footpath. They are 
 said to make long wanderings, and hence their 
 name, palmer being the term originally applied to 
 pilgrims returned from the Holy Land in the 
 days of the crusades. In fly dressing, however, 
 the term palmer is used in a general way, to denote 
 wingless artificials, hackled all down, or half-way 
 down, the body. Mr. Francis Francis shows, I 
 think, convincingly enough, that the natural 
 palmer cannot be regarded as having a place 
 among the staple foods of the trout, and that the
 
 86 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 artificial imitation must therefore be relegated to 
 the list of fancy patterns. 
 
 Ronalds and Foster seem to be of quite a 
 different opinion, but we need not enter on the 
 controversy here. The important fact for us is, 
 that both the large woolly bears and the small 
 palmers are often very killing lures. 
 
 The following is a good method of dressing a 
 palmer : Lay on the silk and tie in gut as usual. 
 Select a hackle, long in the quill and relatively 
 
 FIG. 46. 
 
 short in the fibre. Stroke back all its fibres 
 except those at the point. Tie it in by the point, 
 before tying in body material. 
 
 Tie in ribbing tinsel, if any, and body material. 
 Wind tying silk to shoulder. Wind and fasten 
 body material and ribbing tinsel. 
 
 Wind hackle, keeping it well on edge, in open 
 spiral coils, close behind, and touching ribbing 
 tinsel. Fasten down hackle with two turns of 
 tying silk. Cut away stem of hackle. 
 
 If desired, another hackle may now be tied in,
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 
 
 87 
 
 and the fly finished as a buzz -fly, Or both hackle 
 and wings may be added as in No 2, thus making 
 
 FIG. 49. 
 
 the fly what we may term a winged palmer. The 
 third alternative, is, of course, to form the head 
 and finish " right away."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY (continued). 
 
 IT may here be well to consider the proper 
 method of winding a spiral, since there seems to 
 be a prevalent idea, even among authors on fly 
 dressing, that it is impossible to wind the hackle 
 
 Spiral incorrectly wound. 
 
 Spiral correctly wound. 
 
 Method of winding obserre the angles. 
 FIG. 50. 
 
 of a palmer in such a manner that it is not after- 
 wards liable to slip, when fastened only at either 
 end. 
 
 To wind a non-slipping spiral (of thread, say) 
 round a cylindrical surface (say that of a pencil),
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 89 
 
 the thread must always, during the winding, be 
 strained at the same angle to the direction in which 
 the pencil points, For suppose the pencil to be 
 covered exactly with a rectangular strip of paper, 
 and suppose the thread to leave a mark on the 
 paper ; then, when a spiral has been wound and 
 unwound, suppose the paper to be removed and 
 flattened out. It will appear as illustrated by the 
 shaded portion of the figure (Fig. 50). A marks 
 extremity of the spiral and B the other. 
 
 Now, from the dotted portion of the figure it is 
 easily seen that the length of any spiral reaching 
 from A to B must be equal to the length of some 
 line reaching from A to B', B' being perfectly 
 determinate from the position of B and the 
 number of turns in the spiral. But the shortest 
 of all lines leaching from A to B' is the straight 
 line AB'. Therefore the shortest spiral reaching 
 from A to B is that wound in accordance with the 
 above-mentioned conditions. 
 
 If, now, the ends of this shortest spiral be bound 
 fast to the pencil, it is clear that, unless the 
 thread forming the spiral stretches, it is quite 
 impossible for any part of it to slip. 
 
 We see, then, that to dress a palmer properly 
 it is necessary, both to wind the hackle as has 
 been directed, and to fasten it with the tying silk 
 as soon as it has been wound as far as the shoulder. 
 The wrong method is, after having wound the 
 hackle in open turns up the body, to proceed at 
 once to wind it in a few close turns at the 
 shoulder, without previously making it fast. I 
 trust that I have made this point very clear, for 
 it involves an important principle which is often 
 disregarded. 
 
 When there is any considerable degree of taper 
 in the body, the considerations by which we 
 determine the shortest spiral must undergo some 
 modification.
 
 90 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 It will be clear from reasoning, analogous to 
 the above, that in this case the hackle or ribbing 
 tinsel should be held at a slightly smaller angle 
 to the shank as the winding proceeds. Thus the 
 turns of the spiral will, for two reasons,* be more 
 
 FIG 51. Types of wet flies. A Upwing dressed by method 
 No. 1. B Upwing dressed by method No. 2. C Fly 
 with thickly dubbed body and dubbing for legs. D Buzz 
 fly. E Palmer. P Winged palmer. Cr Fly with 
 tassel-like tag. H Fly with tinsel tag. 
 
 widely spaced near the shoulder than near the 
 tail. If the hackle be held taut during the 
 
 * The first reason being that, even if the angle were not 
 gradually lessened, the thickening of the body would occasion 
 a corresponding and proportionate widening of the spaces 
 between the successive coils.
 
 HOW TO DEESS A WET FLY. 
 
 91 
 
 winding, it will, of course, have a tendency to 
 take up its pi-oper position automatically. 
 
 ANOTHER METHOD OF DRESSING A WINGED 
 PALMER. 
 
 Commence as before, tying in hackle, ribbing 
 tinsel (if any), and body material in succession. 
 Wind tying silk, body material, and ribbing 
 tinsel to shoulder, fastening in the two last as 
 before. Tie in wings as in method No. 1. Wind 
 body hackle and finish as before. 
 
 TAGS. 
 Two kinds of tags are illustrated in Fig. 51. 
 
 FIG. 52. 
 
 The one (G-), a short tassel-like appendage, is 
 formed by a piece of floss silk or a bunch of 
 feather fibres, tied in at the end of the body, as 
 whisks are, and afterwards trimmed squarely 
 across at the proper length. The other type (H) 
 may be described as a short joint or section at 
 the tail end of the body, and of a colour different 
 from that of the remainder of the body. Let us 
 now suppose that it is desired to make a tag of 
 tinsel in front of the whisks. 
 
 Commence as \isual, and having reached the
 
 92 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 stage illustrated in Fig. 27, tie in a length of fine 
 flat tinsel. Wind the tying silk some four or five 
 turns towards the right, and fasten in clip. 
 Wind tinsel over these four or five turns, and 
 fasten by one turn of the tying silk. Before 
 cutting away unwound tinsel, tie in body material 
 with two more turns of tying silk towards the 
 right, which should be made over the end of the 
 tinsel, so as to further secure it. Cut away tinsel 
 and end of body material, and proceed as before. 
 
 It is obvious that when a fly has whisks, a tag 
 may be formed either before or behind the whisks. 
 It is clear, also, that by a device similar to that 
 just described, may be made a winged palmer, 
 hackled only halfway down the body. The 
 hinder half of the body may be made as a tag of 
 one strip of material, and after this is wound and 
 secured by one turn, the hackle, ribbing tinsel, 
 and another strip of body material may be tied 
 in, and the fly completed as before. Parti- 
 coloured bodies of any number of joints may be 
 made on the same lines. The following applica- 
 tion of the same method may also be noticed. 
 
 When a particularly large palmer, or woolly 
 bear, is to be made, it may sometimes happen 
 that a hackle sufficiently long to cover the whole 
 length of the body cannot be obtained. In this 
 case, the simplest plan is to make the body in two 
 sections, finishing off one before tying in hackle 
 and body material with which to form the other. 
 If the work be done neatly, the join will not be 
 easily visible. 
 
 How TO MAKE A DUBBED BODY. 
 
 Commence as usual, and having tied in the 
 ribbing tinsel (if any), hold the tying silk taut 
 with the left hand, and taking a little dubbing of 
 the proper shade between the finger and thumb 
 of the right, spin it smoothly on the well waxed
 
 HOW TO DRESS A WET FLY. 
 
 93 
 
 tying silk close up to the shank of the hook. 
 Twist the tying silk a few times in the same way, 
 " right handed " or " left handed," as that in 
 which the dubbing was spun. Wind the tying 
 silk, now covered with dubbing, towards the right 
 as far as the shoulder. Remove the unwound 
 
 FIG. 53. 
 
 dubbing from the tying silk with the nails of tne 
 right forefinger and thumb. 
 
 In dressing some flies, the dubbing that has 
 been wound on the body should now be picked 
 out with the dubbing needle, so as to soften the 
 outline of the body and give it a more woolly 
 effect. 
 
 Wind the ribbing tinsel, and fasten it off as 
 usual. Tie in wings as usual, and add hackle ;
 
 94 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 or, having brought the tying silk behind the 
 wings, spin a little more dubbing on it, and wind 
 a turn or two of this behind the wings. Finish 
 as usual, and when dubbing is to serve for hackle, 
 pick it out carefully at the shoulder. 
 
 Of course, the hackle or " shoulder dubbing " 
 may be put on before the tying in of the wings 
 according to method No. 2, if it be so preferred.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 HOW TO DEESS A DRY FLY. 
 
 DRY-FLY fishing being a development of wet-fly 
 fishing, it follows almost of necessity, that the 
 artificial lures used in the newer style should be 
 developments of those used in the older ; and fact 
 confirms the inference. 
 
 It is in the hackle and wings of the dry fly that 
 the results of the developing process are chiefly 
 noticeable. The special object served by the 
 seemingly excessive number of fibres in the 
 hackle is, firstly, to afford greater support when 
 the fly is in contact with the surface of the water ; 
 and, secondly, to afford greater resistance to 
 descent, and thus decrease the impetus with 
 which the fly strikes the water. The split wings, 
 acting like a parachute, also contribute to 
 .produce the same result. 
 
 Now, it is well known that in almost every case 
 of practical importance, a body which does not 
 sink to the bottom of a fluid displaces a quantity 
 of the fluid equal in weight to itself. But, 
 strange as it may seem, the Archimedean rule, 
 almost universal in its application, is of but minor 
 importance to the dry-fly angler. A simple 
 experiment will decide the matter. 
 
 Place a dry fly carefully on the surface of the 
 water, and in an upright or " cocked " position. 
 Its " displacement " is very small indeed, little 
 more than the bend of the hook being under 
 water. Then sink the fly, pressing it well under 
 the surface. On the pressure being removed, it
 
 96 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 will (if a typical dry fly) rise rapidly, till the tips 
 of its wings touch the surface, when it will 
 remain still, entirely immersed held down by 
 the elastic skin of the water, to which reference 
 has already been made. Before, when the fly 
 was floating properly, it was the elastic skin that 
 held it up. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that this elastic skin of the 
 water is capable of sustaining such a small 
 weight, that, in all ordinary questions of buoyancy, 
 its presence may be altogether ignored, but its 
 influence in dry-fly fishing is supreme. 
 
 A good dry fly, then, should be constructed : 
 
 1. To fall in the correct position. 
 
 2. To fall so gently on the skin of the water as 
 not to break through it. 
 
 3. To distribute its weight so evenly on the 
 skin as to be easily borne up. 
 
 4. To prevent the skin from "creeping" over it. 
 In Chapter V. the last condition has already 
 
 been discussed. We shall now examine some 
 forms of dry flies, and discover how far they fulfil 
 the remaining conditions. 
 
 Forms A, B, and C (Fig. 54) are those most com- 
 monly used, but all have a tendency to fall with the 
 hank of the hook pointing skywards, unless there 
 is just sufficient tension at the end of the gut cast 
 to keep it horizontal. When this is the case, the 
 line of descent being vertical, it follows that the 
 wings should be perpendicular to the shank (as in 
 Form B). if the maximum advantage is to be 
 taken of their parachutic action. Now, while 
 Form A is the truest to nature, Form C is the 
 most evenly balanced when floating in its correct 
 position, and therefore conforms best to the third 
 condition above laid down, so that, on the whole, 
 it would seem that Form B, being a compromise 
 between the two, and having, as has just been 
 demonstrated, a special advantage of its own, is
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 
 
 97 
 
 the best of the three, that have, so far, been 
 considered. 
 
 Forms D and E, however, seem, when judged 
 by the standards proposed, to be far nearer to 
 mechanical perfection than any of the others. 
 In Form E, for instance, a form of my own in- 
 vention, for the first time publicly described in the 
 
 PIG. 51. Types of dry flies. A, 'B, C Ordinary J.'upwings 
 D Reversed winged up wing. E, F Detached bodied 
 flies. G- Ordinary downwing. H Fly with "rolled" 
 wings. I Reverse winged downwing. 
 
 Fishing Gazette in 1897, it will be noticed that the 
 centre of gravity is just beneath the wings. This 
 means that the natural tendency of the fly is to fall 
 upright on the surface of the water, and with the 
 minimum of speed. Besides this, the hackle, 
 being the first part of the fly to touch the water, 
 serves to break the force of the fall. When the
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 fly is floating, it is supported both by the shank 
 of the hook and the detached body, so that it is 
 the hardest to sink (as well as the easiest to 
 " cock ") of all the types illustrated. It also, J 
 think, compares favourably with Form F as 
 regards the consideration of the hook being 
 hidden, especially when it is remembered that 
 any part of the hook that is under water must I >< 
 seen by the fish much more distinctly than the 
 part above the surface ; and, more than this, that 
 the part beneath the water will often be seen 
 double owing to reflection. 
 
 Form D has its centre of gravity almost 
 beneath its wings, and, therefore, possesses 
 advantages similar to those of Form E, which it 
 even excels in effective concealment of the hook. 
 With Pattern C, however, it shares this disadvan- 
 tage, that, when it is in use, the wear and tear on 
 the wings is somewhat excessive, owing to the 
 slope of these towards the point of the i'od. 
 
 With regard to the " set " of the hackle of a 
 dry fly, the advantage of having the fibres as well 
 spread out as possible is more than ever apparent. 
 Indeed, to stroke and pull them out into a com- 
 pact bunch, is not merely to go out of one's way 
 to avoid a resemblance to nature, but it is to act 
 almost as foolishly as would a furniture maker, 
 who would place the four legs of a table in a 
 straight line ; for some of the hackle fibres of a 
 dry fly should help to support it on the skin of 
 the water, much as the legs of a table support 
 the table. It is one of the advantages of cocks' 
 hackles for dry-fly dressing over the softer hackles 
 of the hen, that the fibres of the former do not 
 get drawn together as easily as do those of the 
 latter. 
 
 Having now attempted to explain the i;vn<'r;il 
 principles upon which a dry fly should be con- 
 structed, and discussed the advantages of the
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 99 
 
 various external forms of the finished article, I 
 may proceed, without further delay, to the 
 description of the various methods of its 
 manufacture. 
 
 DRY FLY. METHOD No. 1. 
 
 Commence at shoulder and wind towards the 
 left .to bend. Tie in whisks and form body as in 
 wet-fly methods. 
 
 FIG. 55. 
 
 Now prepare two pieces of feather web of the 
 Form B, illustrated in Fig. 32, and of the same 
 size. Place these on the table, dark side upper- 
 most. Slightly moisten the tip of the right fore- 
 finger and press it gently on one of the feather 
 webs so as to cause it to adhere. Raise it from 
 the table and lay it, light side to dark side, exactly 
 F 2
 
 100 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 over the other. Moisten the forefinger again and 
 press it on the two thicknesses of feather, so as to 
 cause both to adhere to the finger in their proper 
 positions. Then, using both hands, fold the 
 double thicknesses of feather in half, leaving the 
 dark side facing outwards. The four thicknesses 
 of feather thus obtained are to be the double 
 wings of our dry fly. I shall refer to the process 
 
 PIG. 56. Hackle being brought between the wings. 
 
 just described as the first method of winging, or 
 preparing the wings (vide Fig. 57). Single wings 
 are in durability and genei-al utility much inferior 
 to double ones. They are prepared, as is obvious, 
 by doubling one thickness of feather dark side 
 outwards. 
 
 Tie in wings. Clip stumps, and continue 
 winding towards the right to end of shank.
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 101 
 
 Wind back towards the left, and, when the 
 roots of the wings are reached, take one turn 
 behind the wings. Fasten silk in clip. 
 
 Prepare and tie in hackle as in wet-fly methods, 
 but with three turns towards the left. Clip stem 
 of hackle. 
 
 Fasten silk in clip, and wind hackle about four 
 turns towards the right, remembering to make 
 the turns alternately before and behind the 
 strained length of tying silk. Leave hackle 
 strained taut by suspended hackle pliers. 
 
 Split the wings apart with the tweezers. Take 
 hold of the hackle pliers with the left hand, and 
 the near wing (a double thickness of course) 
 between the right forefinger and thumb. Now 
 wind the hackle one more turn towards the right, 
 passing it between the wings, and again leave it 
 strained taut by suspended pliers. 
 
 Then, again, take hackle pliers in left hand, and 
 the off wing between forefinger and thumb of 
 right hand, and wind hackle yet another turn, 
 but backward towards the left, again passing it 
 between the wings. 
 
 Secure hackle by two turns of silk taken close 
 behind the wings, and by one or two more taken 
 in front of them. Form whip finish. 
 
 Adjust hackle fibres, &c., and varnish head. 
 
 A second method of preparing wings for a 
 dry fly is as follows : 
 
 Lay the two thicknesses of feather fibre (each 
 of the width of two wings) dark side to dark side, 
 and then double both together. The result is 
 illustrated sectionally in Fig. 57. 
 
 After some practice the beginner will be able to 
 " square up " a sufficiently broad piece of feather 
 to form all four thicknesses of the two wings. It 
 will then be sufficient to double this piece twice 
 when it is desired to prepare wings according to 
 the method just described.
 
 102 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 Et is to bo observed that in a fly, winded by Ihe 
 first method given, the dark side of Ihe winging 
 feather is exposed, and vice rcrsA by the second. 
 
 Wings prepared after the second method may. 
 when the fly is complete, be converted inl" 
 " rolled " wings by their tips being twirled. The 
 modus operandi is familiar to owners of moustaches. 
 Personally, I do not admire " rolled " wings. 
 They wear well, but this seems to be their 
 only advantage. It is, however, sometimes 
 convenient to "roll" the wings of a fly when, 
 
 FIG. 57. Sections of wings. A As prepared by ftrst 
 method. B As prepared by second method. The 
 thick lines indicate the dark side of the feather. 
 
 after continued use, they become somewhat 
 draggled. 
 
 Sometimes the four thicknesses of the wings 
 are accurately paired. That is to say, that of the 
 two outside thicknesses one is taken from a 
 certain part of some particular feather of the 
 right wing of a bird, and the other from the 
 corresponding part of the corresponding feather 
 of the left wing of the same bird ; and the 
 two inside thicknesses are, of course, similarly 
 obtained. This plan may have its advantages in 
 securing perfect symmetry, but I do not find it 
 easy to carry out in practice, nor, indeed, to give
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 
 
 103 
 
 appreciably better results than the other methods 
 described. 
 
 There is, however, one fact which may be noted 
 concerning it, which may possibly commend it to 
 the beginner. The four thicknesses are put 
 together just as they are cut from the quill 
 
 FIG. 58. Illustrating the preparation of wings by the 
 "pairing" method. X Feather from right wing. 
 Y Feather from left wing. A, B Pieces of feather cut 
 from X. C, D Pieces of feather cut from Y. W The 
 wings ready to be tied in. S Sectional view of same. 
 F Fly winged by "pairing" method. ToformW: Bis 
 laid on A, C on B, and D on C. 
 
 (Fig. 58), so that the " squaring up " process 
 illustrated in Fig. 32, is not essential. As this 
 process is a somewhat delicate one to execute 
 properly, albeit occupying a very short time, I 
 would recommend the adoption of the " pairing " 
 plan as a good means of evading it. Under 
 these circumstances it will not be necessary to
 
 104 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 pair with absolute accuracy. It will effect < In- 
 put-pose in view, if the right wing of the fly 
 is made from a right wing feather of the bird, 
 and vice versii. But the " squaring up" method 
 must be learnt before the amateur can be 
 considered proficient, and when once learnt it 
 is really quite easy.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOW TO DEESS A DEY FLY. 
 METHOD No. 2. 
 
 COMMENCE at the end of the shank, winding six 
 or seven turns towards the left. 
 
 Take wings between the left forefinger and 
 
 FIG. 60. 
 
 thumb, but with the tips, instead of the stumps, 
 
 pointing in the same direction as the forefinger. 
 
 Hold wings in position illustrated in Fig. 59, and 
 
 F 3
 
 106 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 lie in by a few turns towards tin- left. Ka.--1en 
 silk in clip, and cut ;iway stumps slantwise. 
 ( Kitf. 60). 
 
 Continue as usual till body is formed and 
 -e< -lived behind winjjs. Tie in hackle, and finish 
 exactly as in method No. 1 (dry fly). 
 
 By the method just described a fly of form C, 
 (Fig. 54) is produced. 
 
 To DRESS A DRY FLY WITH Two HACKLES. 
 When, in any of the dry-fly processes described, 
 the stage at which the hackle is tied in is reached 
 
 FIG. 61. The inside of this hackle faces the operator. 
 
 wind a couple of turns towards the left, close 
 behind the wings. 
 
 Then tie in the " fore " hackle in the position 
 shown (Fig. 61), with two more turns towards 
 the left ; and next, the hinder hackle, in the 
 usual position, with another two turns in the 
 same direction (Fig. 62). 
 
 Wind the hinder hackle three or four turns 
 towards the right, alternately before and behind
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 
 
 107 
 
 the strained length of tying silk, as usual. Fasten 
 off hinder hackle with two turns towards the right. 
 Fasten silk in clip, and cut away waste point of 
 hackle just wound. 
 
 Now wind " fore " hackle one or two turns 
 towards the right, alternately behind and before 
 silk. Then bring hackle, as before, forward and 
 backwards between the wings, and finish as 
 usual. 
 
 The bringing of the hackle of a dry fly forward 
 
 FIG. 62. 
 
 and backwards between the wings is, so far as I 
 know, a method of my own. I find that it 
 effectually checks the tendency of the split wings 
 to close up together, when wet or in any way 
 compressed. 
 
 If it be preferred, the hackle (or " fore " hackle 
 when two are used) of a dry fly may be wound 
 and secured in precisely the same manner as are 
 the hackles of wet flies, and the wings split 
 afterwards.
 
 108 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 The bringing of the hackle alternately before 
 and behind the strained length of tying silk, and 
 thus interlocking the stem of the hackle and the 
 tying silk, is also a method of my own invention. 
 
 How TO DRESS A DOWNWIND DRY FLY. 
 
 Commence as in method No. 1 (dry-fly), but 
 leave more of the end of the shank bare than 
 
 FIG 63. 
 
 when dressing upwings. Form body, and tie in 
 wings as usual. Clip stumps. Wind to end of 
 shank and back again till within two turns of the 
 roots of the wings. Tie in hackle (root pointing 
 half-right) with two turns towards the left in 
 front of the wings, and one turn behind them. 
 Split the wings, and bring the first turn of the 
 hackle forward between them, and in front of 
 strained length of tying silk ; the second turn
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 109 
 
 back between them again, and, of course, also in 
 front of the silk ; and the third behind strained 
 silk and forward between the wings. 
 
 Wind the next two or three turns all towards 
 the right in front of the wings, and alternately 
 before and behind tying silk. Fasten off hackle 
 and finish as usual. 
 
 How TO DRESS A DRY FLY Buzz. 
 
 Commence at shoulder and wind towards the 
 left to bend. Continue till body is wound and 
 secured. Tie in hackle (root pointing half -right) 
 on the under side of the shank, with three turns 
 towards the left. Wind hackle as usual some 
 half dozen turns, stroking the fibres into position 
 when needful. Fasten off and clip point of hackle, 
 and wind to end of shank. Wind back to roots 
 of hackle fibres. Form whip finish, and complete 
 as usual. 
 
 To DRESS A DRY FLY HACKLED OVER THE BODY. 
 
 This type of fly differs from an ordinary 
 dry fly only in having a body hackle, which 
 is added as part of the body material, after 
 the manner described in the chapter on wet fly 
 dressing. 
 
 How TO DRESS A DETACHED BODIED DRY FLY. 
 
 The advantage of detached bodied flies has 
 long been a moot point among fly fishers. The 
 majority of those who object to them content 
 themselves, perhaps wisely, with the simple 
 statement of their objection, occasionally, it 
 may be, backing their remarks, by saying that 
 they themselves have tried these flies without 
 success. 
 
 I should be the last to deny the satisfactory 
 nature of this argument, if it did not appear that
 
 110 HOW TO TIE FUE8. 
 
 the; trials ;iiv, as ;t rule, most desultory ; accorded, 
 perhaps, under unfavourable conditions " when 
 things are slack," as the saying is and not so 
 much to make a test, as to excuse a condemna- 
 tion. At any rate, in the face of the success 
 of Mr. Halford and others with detached bodied 
 flies, it cannot be said that those who urge 
 the uselessness of these lures have the honours 
 of the experiment argument all on their own 
 side. 
 
 Inviting theoretical criticisms, we are told that 
 the stiffness of a detached body, made on a 
 foundation of bristle or gut, at once betrays its 
 delusive character to the fish. But until we are 
 enabled to dispense with a hook of tempered steel 
 as an essential portion of our fly, it would seem 
 that we are not in a position to press this 
 objection very far. 
 
 Be this as it may, the flies of which I am about 
 
 FIG. 64. 
 
 to describe the method of manufacture have 
 bodies as soft and flexible as those of the natural 
 insect, and are in another particular, already 
 indicated,* so different from other detached bodied 
 flies as to entitle them, according to their 
 advocate's opinion, to a separate trial before the 
 general sentence is passed upon them. 
 
 It will at least be granted that they can be 
 
 * Vide E, Fig. 54 (page 97), and accompanying text.
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY PLY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 much more easily and rapidly made than those 
 which are at present more in vogue. 
 
 Fix a fine needle the finer the better, so as it 
 be strong enough horizontally in the vice, the 
 point of the needle towards the right. 
 
 Cut a small wedge-shaped piece of cork with a 
 
 PIG. 65. 
 
 slit made transversely across the sharp edge. A 
 small notch may also be cut to form, as it were, 
 an estuary of the slit, and thus clearly indicate 
 the latter's position. Take the fibres to imitate 
 the whisks of the fly, and pull them carefully 
 into the slit (Fig. 64) 
 
 'VSOB^f 
 
 FIG. 66. 
 
 Then set the wedge astride the needle in the 
 position shown in Fig. 65. 
 
 Take a finely cut strip of pure unvulcanised 
 indiarubber, and, having moistened the forefinger 
 with turpentine, roll the strip (pressing lightly) 
 between forefinger and thumb, till it begins t
 
 112 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIE8. 
 
 feel "tacky," which it does almost immediately. 
 Stretch it out slowly, extending it to some five or 
 six times its original length. 
 
 Take one end of the strip in either hand, and 
 stretch it across the needle and over the root 
 ends of the fibres. Wind towards the left with 
 the right hand, easing the tension of the india- 
 rubber as the winding proceeds, so as to taper 
 the body. 
 
 FIG. 67. 
 
 Eemove the wedge of cork from the needle, 
 and then the indiarubber body, by pushing it off 
 with the nails of the left forefinger and thumb. 
 The body will in a few minutes be, to all intents 
 and purposes, a solid piece of rubber soft, 
 flexible, transparent, and durable. 
 
 Remove the needle from the vice, and fix in the 
 latter an eyed hook of the proper size.
 
 HOW TO DEE88 A DRY PLY. 
 
 113 
 
 Wax a length of tying silk, and, commencing at 
 a point close to the bend, wind about half a dozen 
 turns towards the left. 
 
 Hold the indiarubber body just made, in the 
 
 FIG. 69. 
 
 position shown in Fig. 67, and tie it in firmly, but 
 not too tightly, with a few turns towards the 
 right. Fasten silk in clip. 
 
 Now separate the two ends of the indiarubber
 
 114 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 Stretch one of them out, and cut it away as 
 closely as possible. Then ]>ull out the other end 
 as far as it will stretch without breaking, and 
 wind it tightly towards the left over the tying 
 silk. 
 
 Then wind back again towards the right to 
 form the thick shoulder of the fly. Fasten off 
 with two turns of tying silk towards the right, 
 
 PIG. 70. 
 
 and fasten silk in clip. Stretch out the waste end 
 of the rubber and cut it away. 
 
 Tie in wings and finish as in method No. 1 . 
 
 A detached bodied fly of form F (Fig. 54) can 
 be made exactly as described above, except that 
 the rubber body should be tied in at a point 
 nearer the end of the shank. 
 
 If desired, a number of the rubber bodies may
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY PLY. 115 
 
 be made at a time, and kept as stock for a long 
 period. They should he protected from exposure 
 to the light, as should all un-vulcanised rubber, 
 which is otherwise apt to resinit'y at the surface. 
 
 Detached bodied flies, made as described above, 
 have killed well used as wet-flies. When intended 
 for such use, the half-complete fly illustrated in 
 Fig. 70 may be finished as a wet-fly, viz., lightly 
 hackled and with unsplit wings. 
 
 Detached bodied buzz-flies, wet and dry, will 
 also be favourites in many quarters.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY (Continual). 
 
 To MAKE A DETACHED BODY RIBBED IN 
 Two SHADES OF COLOUR. 
 
 FOR this purpose we require two very fine 
 strips of rubber, one (A) dyed the lighter colour 
 (say yellow olive), and the other (B) dyed, 
 half its length the lighter colour, and the other 
 half the darker (say, green olive). The latter 
 strip is obtained by half immersing a strip, already 
 dyed the lighter colour, in dye producing the 
 darker shade. An effective, if somewhat recondite, 
 way of doing this is as follows : Place a handker- 
 chief on the table the kitchen table for choice 
 and place a handful of flour in the centre. Take 
 up the four corners and twist the four ends 
 tightly together, compressing the flour into a 
 ball. Dip the ball into a basin of hot water, then 
 remove it from the water and squeeze it tightly 
 over the basin. Repeat this operation till all the 
 starch that is in the flour is dissolved and passes 
 into the water, and there remains in the handker- 
 chief nothing but the grey indiarubber like sub- 
 stance known as gluten. Collect the gluten into 
 a ball. 
 
 Now take a number of finely cut strips of 
 rubber, dyed yellow olive, and bury half of each 
 in the ball of gluten, leaving the other halves 
 sticking out of it. Mould the gluten thoroughly 
 round the indiarubber, and immerse the whole in 
 the green dye. When the exposed indiarubber is 
 sufficiently deeply coloured, pick the strips from 
 the ball of gluten. It will be found that the
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DBY FLY. 117 
 
 part of the rubber protected by the gluten is 
 quite unaffected by the dye. 
 
 To make the ribbed body : Moisten the two 
 strips (A and B) with turpentine, lay them to- 
 gether, and stretch them out. They may then 
 be wound on the needle as one strip. The parti- 
 coloured end (E. Fig. 71) should be held in the 
 right hand, the light-coloured end (L. Fig. 71) in 
 the left, and the middle (M) should be laid across 
 the needle, so that, in effect, a parti-coloured 
 piece of rubber is wound over a piece of one colour 
 only. 
 
 To impart to un vulcanised indiarubber an olive 
 
 green colour, it should be treated with ordinary 
 aniline green dye, labelled simply " green " by 
 the makers. The indiarubber has a reddish 
 colour of its own, which just corrects the too 
 metallic shade which the dye naturally produces. 
 
 How TO DRESS A REVERSE WINGED FLY. 
 
 Fix the hook in the vice as usual, and, com- 
 mencing close to the end of the shank, wind two 
 or three open spiral turns towards the left Wind 
 back over these (setting in the gut if dressing 
 flies to gut), and continue till within three turns 
 of the end of the shank. 
 
 Tie in the whisks with two more turns towards
 
 118 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 the right, bringing the next and last turn towards 
 the right under the whisks. Tie in body material 
 with a few turns towards the left, and wind silk 
 to middle of shank. 
 
 FIG. 72. 
 
 Flatten one end of a stout piece of hog's bristle 
 (such as a shoemaker uses instead of a needle). 
 Tie it in on the upper side of the shank, winding 
 almost as far as possible towards the left, and 
 
 Fio. 73. 
 
 being careful to keep the bristle on the upper side 
 of the wire. Fasten silk in clip, and wind body 
 material, fastening off when the tying silk is 
 covered.
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DRY FLY. 
 
 119 
 
 Now hold the left forefinger a few inches from 
 the hook, and pass the tying silk round the fore- 
 finger and between the bristle and hook. Bring 
 
 FIG. 74. 
 
 the end of the tying silk from left to right 
 through the loop held open by the forefinger. 
 
 FIG. 75. 
 
 Then insert the dubbing needle into the loop in 
 the place of the finger, and draw the loop tight. 
 
 Now remove the hook from the vice, and fix it 
 in the position shown in Fig. 75. Take two or
 
 120 
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 three turns of the tying silk towards the right, 
 round the bristle, and tie the wings on the 
 bristle. 
 
 Cut short the bristle and the stumps of the 
 wings, and form the head of the fly. 
 
 Wind back to roots of wings, tie in and wind 
 hackle, and finish as usual (Fig. 76). 
 
 How TO DRESS A MAY FLY. 
 
 The bodies of most of the standard floating 
 May Flies are made of straw. This being a too 
 
 FIG. 76. 
 
 stiff and brittle material to permit of its being 
 wound in the ordinary way, the following special 
 method of using 1 it, first published, I believe, by 
 Mr. h'rancis Francis, is usually adopted: 
 
 Commence to make the fly, and continue as 
 usual till whisks, ribbing hackle (if any), and a 
 strong piece of ribbing tinsel have been tied in ;
 
 KOW TO DRESS A DBY FLY. 
 
 121 
 
 and the tying silk wound to shoulder. Fasten 
 silk in clip (Fig. 77). 
 
 Now cut a narrow piece of bright straw of the 
 length of the body and tapered, and make a small 
 nick at either end (Fig. 78). 
 
 Cover the silk lapping neatly with the straw, so 
 that the seam lies uppermost ; and, holding the 
 straw in place, fasten it, by winding the ribbing 
 tinsel spirally over it* 
 
 77. 
 
 Secure the straw and ribbing tinsel with the 
 tying silk at the shoulder, and wind and secure 
 the body hackle (if any). 
 
 FIG. 7S 
 G
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 The wings of a May Fly are usually made of two 
 spoon-shaped feathers, taken from the back, breast, 
 or sides of a drake or of a guinea-fowl. They are 
 generally tied in, back to back, by their quills, 
 and cut into shape, when necessary, after being 
 tied in. This is the manipulation : 
 
 Stroke back some of the lower fibres of the two 
 feathers selected (Fig. 80). 
 
 Tie them in with a few turns towards the right. 
 
 FIG. 79. 
 
 Set the stumps out at right angles to the shank, 
 and take a few more turns of the tying silk in 
 front of them to form the head. Wind back 
 again to roots of wings, tying back the stumps 
 
 Fltf 80.
 
 HOW TO DRESS A DfiY FLY. 123 
 
 en route. Clip these away as closely as possible, 
 and proceed as usual. 
 
 The method of winging that I have just 
 described is due to Mr. Halford. 
 
 The body of a May Fly may be made thicker, 
 and, therefore, more natural looking, if some 
 padding (indiarubber, wool, floss, or dubbing) be 
 put under the straw. The padding is tied in and 
 wound as body material. 
 
 A very natural looking body is made of straw, 
 set in as already described, and covered with a 
 thin strip of transparent rubber wound over it. 
 This is of my own invention. 
 
 I have also made good bodies of a narrow 
 strip of gardener's rofia grass twisted before 
 being wound, and varnished afterwards with clear 
 varnish. When the body is fastened off, secure 
 the tying silk with a single half hitch ; varnish, 
 and remove from vice till varnish is dry. There 
 is, of course, no reason why one should be idle in 
 the interval. 
 
 O 2
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 PARTING OBSERVATIONS AND HINTS, 
 
 THE earnest seeker after truth was advised by 
 a certain great philosopher Descartes, I think 
 to begin his quest knowing nothing. 
 
 Literally construed, the advice has been found 
 impossible to follow ; while, broadly construed, it 
 has been followed by many, and has led to much. 
 
 There are, doubtless, many fly dressers who 
 would give similar advice. " Know nothing of 
 stereotyped dressings," they would say ; " look 
 upon the plumage of all birds, mark and learn, 
 leara thoroughly ; look then upon the fly, and 
 name the feather which shall counterfeit wings 
 or legs. Thus will you gain the knowledge of 
 nature which you require direct from Nature 
 herself." 
 
 But the practical man, as is his wont, will steer 
 a middle course. He will approve of the methods 
 j ust sketched out ; but, recognising the impor- 
 tance of his labour becoming at once productive, 
 will gladly welcome any suggestions which 
 others may be able to give him. Seeing, however, 
 that theories, as well as facts, have their part in 
 regulating and fixing the " standai'd dressings " 
 of flies, he will receive no information on this 
 head as final, till he has tested it by his own 
 experience. 
 
 It had originally been my intention to attempt 
 a more or less complete list of the dressings of 
 the commoner flies ; but on looking closely into 
 the matter, I have decided, with some reluctance,
 
 PARTING OBSERVATIONS AND HINTS. 125 
 
 to leave this branch of fly dressing untouched. 
 I find that the comparatively few novel features 
 discoverable in my dressings have, with one or 
 two unimportant exceptions, already been broadly 
 indicated in my chapter on materials and else- 
 where throughout the present series of articles. 
 Novelty is often a doubtful virtue, but it may be 
 safely assumed that a spicing of it should not be 
 lacking in anything that one aspires to set down 
 in print, and by this assumption I must for the 
 present be guided. It seems to me also that 
 the task of reviewing the different flies in their 
 order, and pointing out how they may be identi- 
 fied and imitated, cannot be adequately performed 
 without the aid of colour printing. 
 
 Eonald's " Fly Fisher's Entomology " long 
 held its place as the standard work on " flies " 
 and their dressings, and will still be found a 
 capital work of reference ; but Mr. Halford's 
 latest book, " Dry Fly Entomology," must now be 
 regarded as the highest modern authority on the 
 subject. Though published but a year or two 
 ago, it has already on many occasions been used 
 as the supreme court of appeal by disputants, 
 on questions relating to the very numerous, 
 yet closely connected matters with which it 
 deals. 
 
 I feel, therefore, that I may safely leave the 
 student of fly dressing to draw upon that store- 
 house for such information as he needs, as to the 
 life history, classification, and characteristics of 
 the insect upon which the trout feeds. 
 
 There remain only one or two miscellaneous 
 matters upon which I desire to touch before 
 bringing these papers to a close. 
 
 As I have indicated, it is of the first importance 
 that the fly dresser should go direct to Nature for 
 his model ; but though dozens of the natural fly 
 be on the water and in the air, it is often a matter
 
 126 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 of difficulty to catch a specimen, and it is espe- 
 cially difficult in the case of flies which do not 
 rise far from the surface of the water, but appear 
 to skim about upon it. An ordinary lauding net 
 is of little use. But by procuring a small muslin 
 net, specially prepared to withstand the water, 
 and fixing four or more watch swivels at equal 
 distances round the mouth, by Vhich the muslin 
 net can be affixed when requisite to the meshes 
 of the landing net, the difficulty may be substan- 
 tially overcome. Suitable nets in all sizes may 
 be obtained from Messrs. Watkins and Doncaster, 
 naturalists, of Holbom Viaduct. 
 
 In imitating flies which, like the up-winged 
 duns, float upright on the water, and present their 
 under sides to the inspection of the trout, it is 
 specially desirable to reproduce successfully the 
 colouring and appearance of the under side. 
 Perhaps the best method of achieving this is to 
 place the fly in its natural position either on a 
 small, flat mirror, or else upon the surface of 
 water, in a basin at the bottom of which lies such 
 a mirror. It will often be found there is an 
 appreciable diiference of colour between the upper 
 and under sides of the body. It may be fairly 
 objected that the mirror throws upward upon the 
 under side of the fly more light than would be 
 reflected by the bottom of a river or pond ; but 
 the surface of the water in sunlight itself reflects 
 no little light upon the insect ; and, further, 
 the general tendency of the dresser is to dress 
 rather more darkly than the colour and natural 
 luminosity of the fly wan-ants. The fault induced 
 therefore, if any, is likely to be on the right 
 side. This method will enable comparisons to 
 be made between the natural fly and the artificial 
 while in progress, comparisons which should be 
 especially valuable in the case of indiarubber 
 bodies.
 
 PARTING OBSERVATIONS AND HINTS. 127 
 
 Indiarubber bought in blocks and unvulcanised 
 is of a red colour, and when cut in very fine 
 narrow strips makes admirable bodies for flies. 
 The best way to cut it fine is to use a razor which 
 has been moistened with cold water. It is, how- 
 ever, made in layers, which can be separated 
 without difficulty, and the cutting need only be 
 in one direction. 
 
 The strips of rubber are specially good for 
 dressing Red Spinners ; in fact, nothing else will 
 imitate the natural body so well. 
 
 For winging Red Spinners, Jenny Spinners, 
 and other clear-winged flies, the best material 
 that I know is a very thin tough skin, which is 
 obtained fi-om the outside of the quill of an 
 ordinary rook's wing feather by the following 
 method : Clip off the quill stump, and steep it in 
 water for a few minutes. Then slit it up with a 
 pair of scissors. It will now be found that the 
 outside of the quill will easily peel off without 
 tearing. Cut two pieces of this material into the 
 shape of wings and tie in. The result is a beau- 
 tiful, almost transparent, wing, which is really 
 most natural and is very durable. It will take 
 a dye for such patterns as the Iron Blue Dun. 
 
 A common error of the beginner is to try to tie 
 in too broad a wing. It is best to begin with 
 narrow wings, and to work gradually up to 
 greater breadths as experience and knack is 
 acquired. Of all feathers, thrush, perhaps, works 
 up most sweetly for wings ; next, perhaps, black- 
 bird, woodcock, starling, and jay. 
 
 For dressing large wet flies with a dark wing, 
 I always prefer brown mallard to grouse, part- 
 ridge or woodcock ; but it should be borne in mind 
 that the fibres of the mallard feathers are harder 
 and coarser than those of most other winging 
 feathers, and where four-ply is used they require 
 to be carefully and more securely fastened in.
 
 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 And now I lay down my pen, thankful to have 
 been permitted to bring my task to a conclusion. 
 It has been a labour of love, and I give it to the 
 great angling public, in the hope that it may be 
 found to contain something of service to those 
 who come after me, and cast their flies upon the 
 waters which I have loved so well, and may 
 never see again. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 INDEX 
 
 A. 
 
 Albo carbon, its use to fly dresser, 55. 
 Application to fly dressing of Robert Louis Steven- 
 son's views anent painting, 4. 
 
 Analogy between purpose of fly drosser and adver- 
 tiser, 8. 
 " Athenian rubber clip," 61-2. 
 
 Detached bodies, 109-15. 
 Drying machine, 48-50. 
 
 B. 
 
 Barbs, 19. 
 
 Benzine collas, its use to fly dresser, 55. 
 Blackbird, as a fly dresser's bird, 30. 
 Bleaching agents, 52-3. 
 
 Recipes for, 52-3. 
 Bodies, detached, 109-15. 
 
 Detached, ribbed in two shades of colour 
 116-7. 
 
 Dubbed, 92. 
 
 Materials suitable, 32-9. 
 
 Of green grass, corn blades, &c., 39. 
 
 Of horsehair, 34. 
 
 Of india-rubber, 35. 
 
 Of quill, 35-8. 
 
 Of rofia grass, 35. 
 
 Of wool, 33. 
 
 Pale ginger, 35. 
 
 Pale yellow, 34. 
 
 Parti-coloured, 92. 
 
 Red spinner, 35. 
 
 Rough hairy, 34.
 
 130 HOW TO TIE PLIES. 
 
 Buzz, fly, definition of, 81. 
 Illustrated, 90. 
 How to dress, wet, 84-6. 
 How to dress, dry, 109. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabinet, the fly dresser's, 45. 
 
 How to make a good substitute, 45. 
 Chamomile flowers, their use to the fly dresser, 56. 
 Collapsible tubes, 54. 
 
 Condor, as a fly dresser's bird, 37. 
 Coot, 29. 
 
 Corncrake 30. 
 
 Corrosive sublimate, its use to the fly dresser, 55. 
 Curiosity of trout, how to take advantage of, 8-9. 
 
 Definition of 
 
 D. 
 
 ' buzz fly," 84. 
 
 ' Dubbing," 34. 
 ' Dun," 80. 
 ' Herl," 33. 
 ' Palmer," 85. 
 ' Spinner," 80. 
 Tag," 91. 
 Design for drying machine, 48-50. 
 
 For fly dresser's cabinet, 45. 
 Downwings, how to dress, wet, 83-4. 
 How to dress, dry, 108. 
 Dry flies, 95-123. 
 
 "Athenian's" dressing, 97, 109-15. 
 
 Detached bodies, 109-15. 
 
 How to dress (method No. 1), 99-104. 
 
 How to dress (method No. 2), 105-6. 
 
 How to wing, 99-100 ; 102-4. 
 
 How to dress with two hackles, 106. 
 
 How to dress, clown wing, 108. 
 
 How to dress, buzz, 109. 
 
 How to dress, hackled over the body, 109. 
 
 Necessary qualifications, 96. 
 
 Types of, illustrated, 97.
 
 INDEX. 131 
 
 Drying machine, Athenian's, 48-50. 
 How to make, 48-9. 
 Illustrated, 49. 
 Price of, 50. 
 
 Where manufactured, 50. 
 Dubbing, a body material, 34. 
 
 Blending different shades of, 34. 
 Definition of, 34. 
 Legs of flies imitated by, 40. 
 Needle, 63-4. 
 
 Dubbed bodies, how to dress, 92. 
 Duns, characteristics of, 80. 
 
 Compared with spinners, 80. 
 Dyes, Crawshaw's " special," 46. 
 Dyeing, 46-52. 
 
 Directions for, 47. 
 
 E. 
 
 Exact imitation theory, 5-9. 
 Examination, post mortem, of fish, 5. 
 
 P. 
 
 Feeding fish and fish off the feed, 8. 
 Feelers of downwing flies, 32. 
 Feverfew, its use to the fly-dresser, 55. 
 Flies, buzz, 84, 109. 
 
 Detached bodied, 109-15. 
 Dry, types of, illustrated, 97. 
 Fancy flies, 7. 
 May flies, 120-3. 
 Natural, types of, illustrated, 66. 
 Reverse winged, 117-20. 
 Wet, types of, illustrated, 90. 
 See also " Wet Flies " and " Dry Flies." 
 Floss silk, 33. 
 Fly dressing an art, 2. 
 
 A recreation, 3. 
 
 A home employment, 3. 
 
 A means of livelihood, 4. 
 
 Method to be avoided by beginners, 3.
 
 132 HOW TO TlR FLtES. 
 
 Fly-dresser's tools, 63-4. 
 
 Fur, water-rat, hare's ear, seal, rabbit, mole, 34. 
 
 Gimp, how to dull, 53 
 
 Golden pheasant, as a fly-dresser's bird, 31. 
 Golden plover, ,, ,, 40. 
 
 Grass, corn blades, Ac., as body material, 39. 
 Grouse, as a fly-dresser's bird, 40. 
 
 Habits of trout as regards diet, 5-6. 
 Hackles, 40-3. 
 
 Dyeing of, 52. 
 
 Hackle pliers, 63-4. 
 
 How to prepare and tie in, 76-7. 
 
 Of hair, 40. 
 
 Of dubbed flies, 40. 
 
 Mr. Halford's ideal shape, 43. 
 
 Shape of, discussed, 43. 
 
 Various colours, including speckled brown, 
 black, badger, honey dun, stone blue, yellow 
 dun, red, blue, white, cream, yellow, buff, 
 red furnace, and white furnace, where 
 obtained, 40-2. 
 
 Wren's tail, &c., 40. 
 Hair, human, &c., as whisks, 31. 
 
 As a body material, 34. 
 
 As a hackle, 40. 
 
 Horse hair, 34. 
 
 Of young puppies and foxes, 34. 
 Herls, definition of, 33. 
 
 Peacock, ostrich, and heron, 33. 
 
 The dyeing of, 52. 
 Heron, as a fly-dresser's bird, 33. 
 Hooking a fish, ideal inclination of rod, 19. 
 Hooks, 12-25 
 
 A searching point discussed, 13. 
 
 " Athenian's " ideal shape. 24.
 
 INDEX. 133 
 
 Hooks, adaptability to form of fly, 22. 
 Eyed, 23, 25. 
 Hardy's "harpoon," 21. 
 Holding power discussed, 19. 
 Ideal, " a creature of compromise," 12 
 Inbarbed and outbarbed, 19-20. 
 Kerbed, 15. 
 Limerick, 15. 
 
 Original suggestions as to shape, 24. 
 Mr. Pennell's ideal, 13, 18. 
 Point guard, 23. 
 
 Penetration, direction of, discussed, 15. 
 Penetration and holding power not independent 
 
 qualities, 19. 
 
 Quick penetration discussed, 15. 
 Sneck and Kirby bends, 14. 
 Strength of, 21. 
 Upturned shanks, 22. 
 Varieties of, illustrated, 23. 
 Warning against cheap hooks, 12. 
 Weakest parts of, 21. 
 Wells and Pennell controversy, 13-14 ; 17-18. 
 
 Imitation of natural, how far necessary, 11. 
 India-rubber, a body material, 35. 
 India-rubber detached bodies, 109-15. 
 Insects, various, illustrated, 66. 
 Introduction, 1-4. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jenny spinner, dressing of, 27. 
 
 Jungle cock, as a fly-dresser's bird, 28. 
 
 L. 
 
 Landrail, as a fly-dresser's bird, 30. 
 Left-handed winding, 66-7.
 
 134 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 Machine for drying dyed materials, 48-50. 
 Mallard, as a fly-dresser's bird, 31. 
 Marten, 30. 
 
 Materials, 26-15. 
 
 How to preserve from moths, &c., 55. 
 May fly, how to dress, 120-3. 
 Mirror, its use to the fly dresser, 126. 
 
 N. 
 
 Napthaline, its use to the fly-dresser, 55. 
 
 Nature of trout, conservative, 6. 
 
 Net, mnalin, for catching natural flies, 126. 
 
 O. 
 
 ' Oil tip," explained and discussed, 56-7. 
 Ostrich, as a fly-dresser's bird, 33. 
 Owl, 30. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palmer, definition of, 85. 
 
 How to dress, 86-7. 
 
 Illustrated, 90. 
 
 Winged, 90-1. 
 
 Paraffin wax, its use to the fly-dresser, 57. 
 Parti-coloured bodies, how dressed, 92. 
 Partridge, as a fly-dresser's bird, 30-40. 
 Peacock, 33. 
 
 Peroxide of hydrogen, for bleaching, 52. 
 Pheasant, as a fly-dresser's bird, 31-33. 
 Pigeon, ., 29. 
 
 Plover, ., .. 28. 
 
 Prefatory note, v.-vii. 
 Preparation of quill for body material. 37-8. 
 
 Of wings from rook's quill, 27-8, 127. 
 Of wings for dry flies, 99-100, 102-4. 
 Professional's method of dressing. 81-2.
 
 INDEX. 135 
 
 Quill, 35-8. 
 
 How prepared from herls, 36. 
 
 wing or tail feathers, 37-8. 
 
 Of peacock herl, 36. 
 
 Of adjutant, condor, heron, and ostrich herl, 37. 
 Of long hackles and saddle feathers, 38. 
 Rook's quills, for wings, 27-8, 127. 
 
 B. 
 
 Eecipes, 52-7. 
 
 For bleaching, 52-3. 
 
 For clear liquid wax, 53. 
 
 For moth and mite killers, 55. 
 
 For scouring mixture, 54. 
 Resemblance of sunk flies to the newly-hatched 
 
 naturals, 7. 
 
 Reverse winged flies, 117-20. 
 Right-handed winding, 66-7. 
 Rise of feeding fish, how distinguished, 7. 
 Rofia grass, a body material, 35, 123. 
 Rouen drake, as a fly dresser's bird, '31. 
 Rubber clips, 61-2. 
 Rubber (see " Indiarubber "). 
 
 S. 
 
 Saddle feathers of fowl, their use, 31, 38. 
 Salmon, taking fly, theory, 10. 
 Scissors (see " Tools"). 
 Scouring mixture, recipe for, 54. 
 Sea-gull, as a fly dresser's bird, 29. 
 Sea swallow, ,, ,, 29. 
 Silk, tying, 26. 
 floss, 33. 
 
 Snipe, as a fly dresser's bird, 28-0, 40. 
 Sparrowhawk ,, 31. 
 
 Spinners, characteristics of, 80. 
 
 Compared with duns, 80. 
 Spirals, how to wind correctly, 88-90. 
 
 How incorrectly wound, 80.
 
 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 
 
 Starling, as a fly dresser's bird, 29-30, 40. 
 Straw, for Mayfly bodies, 121. 
 
 How to bleach, 52. 
 Swallow, as a fly dresser's bird, 30. 
 Swift, ., 30. 
 
 Success of fancy flies, theory of, 7. 
 Sulphurous acid, a bleaching agent, 53. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tag, definition of, 91. 
 
 How made, 91-2. 
 Tails, or whisks, how imitated, 31. 
 "Tailing," 7. 
 
 Teal, as a fly-dresser's bird, 30. 
 Thrush, 30. 
 
 Tinsel, a body material, 39. 
 
 As a foundation for bright floss bodies, 39. 
 
 For ribbing, 39. 
 
 Tom-tit, as a fly-dresser's bird, 30. 
 Tools, the fly-dresser's, 63-4. 
 Turkey, as a fly-dresser's bird, 31-3. 
 Turpentine, its use to the fly-dresser, 55. 
 Tying silk (see Silk). 
 Types of dry flies, 97. 
 
 Natural insects, 66. 
 Wet flies, 90. 
 
 U. 
 
 Upwing dun or spinner, how to dress, 67-79. 
 
 V. 
 
 Varnish, it's use to the fly-dresser, 79. 
 
 Vice, Mr. Halford's, illustrated and described, 59. 
 
 Mr. Hawksley's, illustrated and described, 60. 
 
 " Tacklemaker's," illustrated, 59. 
 
 Waterhen. as a fly-dresser's bird, 30. 
 Water-rail, 30.
 
 INDEX. 137 
 
 Wax, "Athenian's " recipe, 54. 
 
 How to remove from fingers, 55. 
 Liquid and transparent, 53. 
 Paraffin, its use to the fly-dresser, 57. 
 Wet flies, how to dress (Amateur's method), 65-79. 
 
 how to dress (Professional's method), 81-2. 
 " Whip finish," how to make, 77. 
 
 Method illustrated, 78. 
 Whisks of rabbits, &c., as tails, 31. 
 Wings, as a rule made too broad, 127. 
 May fly, 31, 122. 
 Materials for, 27-31. 
 Preparation of (wet flies), 72-3. 
 
 (dry flies), 99-100, 102-4. 
 Preparation from rook quills, 27-8. 
 Reversed, 117-20. 
 Boiled, 102. 
 
 Various colours, including white tipped with 
 black roots, black tipped with white 
 roots, white tipped with dun roots, stone 
 blue, iron blue, reddish, dark cinnamoti, 
 olive brown, black, mottled, dark dun, 
 dingy brown, speckled, " March -brown," 
 black and white barred, and where each 
 obtained, 28-31. 
 
 Woodcock, as a fly-dresser's bird, 30. 
 Wool, a body material, 33. 
 Wren, as a fly-dresser's bird, 40. 
 
 H
 
 Advertisements. 
 
 Price 8/ net. 
 
 Uniform in site, etc., with " How to Tie Flies 
 for Trout if Grayling Fishing." 
 
 HOW TO TIE SALMON FLIES 
 
 A TREATISE ON THK METHODS OF 
 
 TYING THE VARIOUS KINDS 
 
 OF SALMON FLIES. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATED DIRECTIONS. 
 
 BV 
 
 MAJOR J. H. HALE 
 
 (East Lancashire Regiment). 
 
 NEW EDITION REVISED. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX GIVING 
 
 THE DEESSINGS OF 361 SALMON FLIES, 
 
 ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THE FISHING GAZETTE, Ltd., 
 19, Adam Street, W.C.2.
 
 Advertisements. 
 
 PRINTED BY THE FIELD PRESS LTD., BREAM'* BUILDINGS, K.C.4.
 
 This book is DUE on the last 
 date stamped below 
 
 '1 M 241877, 
 
 Series 4967 
 
 I OF C 
 IX)S ANGELES
 
 A 001 148 673 5