66

IMPROVEMENT IN FLY-DRESSING.

feathers for wings from a still greater variety of birds. The same feather that will make the. wings will frequently answer best for the legs, shoulders, and tail of the fly. All that is required

is judgment in the selection, be obtained by comparison.

and this can only

Artificial flies are now certainly very neatly made infinitely better, every judge acknowledges, than they used to be a few years ago. My own ephemeral writings in Bell's Life in London have (I have heard many say) tended much to this advance towards perfection; and so have Mr. Ronalds's Fly-fisher's Entomology,' and Mr. Blacker's Art of Fly-making' and, lastly, so have the two first editions of this Handbook.

6

*

Still we are not perfect in fly-making, nor shall we be so until some more painstaking fly-dresser than we now have gets a collection of natural flies, examines them by means of the microscope, ascertains their precise colours and anatomy, and then by microscopic examination again of feathers, mohair, fur, and so forth, arrives at the exact imitative materials. When that is done, fly-fishing will be reduced to a sporting science exceedingly amusing and instructive. The journeyman fly

* I earnestly recommend this valuable little work to all who wish to become perfect fly-making adepts. It is sold by the author, 54 Dean Street, Soho, and by the Messrs. Longman and Co., Paternoster Row.

HINTS TO FLY-DRESSERS.

67

dresser at present is merely acquainted with the mechanical part of the art, dresses from artificial specimens, knows little or nothing of the natural insect, and is rarely a good angler. He is a copyist of a copy, and does not know whether that which he has to copy is a good likeness of the living subject or not. A fishing-tackle maker, to be a great and good one, should have an insect museum,—the flies, caterpillars, and beetles, fish feed on, preserved in cases, named and numbered, and the season of each noted. From these models he should dress his flies: and when he finds he has succeeded in framing perfect copies, he should note down the materials he has used in their formation, and then he will have sure guides for the fly-dressers he employs. He should pay those persons well, and engage none who do not deserve high pay; and should charge his customers a remunerative price. The generality of flies are sold at too low a price. They cannot be made well at a low price. They must be defective in every way, and hence the purchaser meets with little success, much loss of time and of money, for cheap things are always the most expensive in the end. There have been persons advertising to make, at 18. 6d. a dozen, the flies I recommend. At that price the hooks and gut must be of inferior quality, the workmanship 'scamped,' so that the hooks will draw after a

68

STRETCHERS AND DROPPERS.

tussle or two with a good fish. My flies cannot be well dressed for less than double the above price.

In trout and grayling fishing I would always have three flies on my casting-line at the same time. The tail-fly or stretcher should be the best, and when possible the largest; the first dropper, a good general fly, and the second dropper, or third fly, a most attractive hackle. The stretcher should be an imitation of the fly in season. It is the fly which ought to fall first on the water; if you cast well, it floats most naturally in it, and a fish hooked by it is more easily played and killed than with either of the droppers. When you find that fish are rising at one sort of fly only that your stretcher, or one or other of your droppers, is the sole attraction, remove your useless flies, and make your sole attraction a triple You will often find several sorts of natural flies on the water simultaneously: observe which of them the fish are feeding upon, and produce your imitations if you have them in your book. If not, make them if you can.

one.

It is a fact that hackles and palmers are the most killing flies on many of the rivers in England, whilst on others winged flies are the best. Hackles, except a very few, do not kill well in Ireland. Winged flies are the best there. Palmers are not good flies, generally speaking, in Ireland;

whilst in some parts of England they are the best general baits. In our northern streams, which are exposed to cold winds, and not well sheltered with trees, bushes, and plants, hackles and small flies are the most killing. In well-wooded rivers, in our midland, western, and southern counties, winged flies are the most attractive, and the palmer kills better than the simple hackle. The natural flies are bred larger there, and with more seasonable regularity. We have one consolation, however, that the good general fly extends its attractive qualities to all aquatic coquettes, be they English, Irish, Scotch, or Welsh salmon or salmonidæ. Experience alone, whether it be your own experience or that of others, can make you intimately acquainted with the great local favourites.

THERE are hundreds of things that cannot be taught easily by means of pen and ink, but which the tongue and hand, reciprocally illustrating each other, can inculcate with very little difficulty. Fly-dressing or fly-making is one of those things. I can scarcely teach it by writing; in a few hours I could explain the whole matter with tongue and hand. However, I must on paper do the best I can; and the artist in wood having lent me some assistance, I fancy I can make a short lecture on fly-making practically comprehensible. The woodcut on the left-hand side of this

сто

page, and marked 1, represents what fly-dressers term 'the gut armed,' that is, plainly speaking, the gut and hook whipped on, or

tied together. It is the

first step in fly-dressing, and is thus performed: -You take the hook by the bent part, or bend, between the tips of the fore finger and thumb of the left hand; the back part of the hook being