The word buzz, which is taken from the buzzing motion of an insect’s wings when moved rapidly, is applied to the hackle wound more or less along the body, and supposed thus without wings to represent that motion. The hackle may be carried all the way from the bend or only part of the way, or merely tied very full at the head. In this matter, as well as concerning palmers, writers differ. A palmer is properly a long-bodied fly with two small hooks, and hackles wound the entire length, to represent a caterpillar and its hairy ornaments. The hooks are often made double expressly for this purpose. A hackle has but one hook and a shorter body. The word midge is another word that leads to mistakes; there are only a few proper midge-flies, such as the gnat, ant, etc., but any fly may be dressed on a minute hook and called a midge-fly, although this is not an accurate use of language. Horse-hair is sometimes used as a substitute for gut by old-fashioned anglers, but it is weaker, more apt to slip, and more perceptible to the fish.
An excellent plan for preserving feathers conveniently and safely, is to put them in envelopes suited in size to their length, and to stow them, together with a piece of camphor, in a tin box. If they are looked over, occasionally, and the camphor renewed as it wastes, they will remain untouched by moth; but if they are to be kept for a long time unhandled, they should be deposited in a linen bag. The envelopes should be large, for if the fibres are bent they will not make handsome wings, and the different classes of feathers may be tied in separate bundles.
The following wax is recommended in the Appendix to “Fly-fishing in Salt and Fresh Water:”—Melt some resin in a small vessel over a slow fire, and whilst it is on the fire and after it has become fluid, take a pure white wax candle, light it and let it drop into the melted resin; there is no rule as to the quantity. Pour out upon a board either greased or rubbed with wax from the candle, one fourth of the composition; then drop more wax into the remainder and pour out one fourth more. Proceed in the same manner with the other two fourths, and thus you will have wax of four degrees of hardness; that with the least wax dropped from the candle being for use in hot weather, the others for different degrees of temperature of the seasons. After the composition has become cool on the board, it should be well worked on the board as shoemaker’s wax is.
To make soft wax to use upon very delicate silk, dissolve some common shoemaker’s wax in spirits of wine until it becomes of the consistency of butter, then put a small quantity on the inside of a piece of an old kid glove, and draw the silk gently through it. Or put a piece of shoemaker’s wax the size of a walnut in a small bottle, and pour over it an ounce of eau-de-cologne; shake it occasionally till it dissolves, when it is ready for use; then taking a drop between the finger and thumb, draw the silk through it. It may be carried in a metal bottle with a screw stopper, and if well corked will keep for years.
In Scrope’s Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing, is found the following description of a few favorite salmon flies:—
No. 1. Kinmont Willie.
Wings.—Mottled feather from under the wing of a male teal.
Head.—Yellow wool.
Body.—Fur of the hare’s ear.
End of Body.—Red wool.