I have seen, in days when the fish are not in the humour of taking, a fly tied neatly near the tint, somewhat gaudy, will unquestionably entice them to rise, and will decidedly be more advantageous than fishing without plan. In days when the natural flies are most numerous, the trout will not take the artificial fly so freely; on the contrary, when these insects are rarely to be seen, if the angler can find the colour that is then prevailing, and imitate it, his success will be considerably increased.
In these pages will be found descriptions of Flies that will kill well in every river and lake in the United Kingdom. And those in the "Hand Book of Angling," and the "Book of the Salmon," by the celebrated "Ephemera," will also be found excellent throughout the Kingdom.
AN EASY METHOD TO MAKE THE TROUT FLY.
The tyro will provide himself with a dubbing book, containing numerous compartments, to hold feathers, furs, pig hair, mohair, hackles, wing feathers, silk, tinsel, scissars, pliers, knife, and every other article necessary for fly-making—all of which may be procured at my Shop, 54, Dean Street, Soho, with Rods, Reels, Lines, Gut, Hooks, Artificial Baits, and every denomination of Fishing Tackle, of the most superior quality in London.
Having laid out your materials on the table, seat yourself by a good light, and proceed as follows:—Take a piece of fine silk, and pin one end of it on your knee, take the other end between your left fore-finger and thumb, and with the right, take a small piece of shoemaker's wax, well tempered, and rub it all over the silk, keeping it tight in your left till it is all covered with the wax, rub it well on the end you are about to tie on the hook with, to keep it firm, for it will be found a very great object to use the wax throughout the making of the fly, as with the working of the tying silk it rubs off with the hand. There is a very beautiful silk of all colours to be had on spools, which ribbons are made of, that works very finely on the hook; when you wax it, take two or three folds of it, and pin it evenly on your knee, as before (or hold it between your teeth and twist it), twist it gently between your fingers a little so that you can wax it well, provide a piece of leather about an inch wide and an inch and a half long, double it, and lay a piece of nicely tempered wax between the folds, flatten it, and when you wax the silk, take the leather between your fingers, open the edge of it, and rub the wax on the tying silk in the same way as before, and you will not break the silk so easily, or dirty your fingers with the wax. You now take the hook by the bend in the left fore-finger and thumb, give two or three turns of the silk round the shank, flatten the end of the gut a little, which keeps it from drawing off, and tie it on underneath about half way down the hook firmly, this done, lay on a little varnish with your pencil. Take a piece of finer silk to make the fly with, and fasten it near the end of the shank, do not bring the silk to the extreme end of the shank to leave room for the wings, as they are apt to slip over on the gut if tied on too near. You strip off two pieces from the woodcock or starling wing, and lay them together evenly at the points, that the wings may be double when tied on (see the Trout-fly wing cut out of the woodcock feather, in the Plate), see that you do not make the wings too long when tying them on, let them be a little longer than the bend; press them tightly with your nails on the hook where you tie them on, and do not clip the ends of the wings with your nails, which gives them an unnatural appearance, but whether you lay them on first, or tie them on the reverse way and turn them back, make a judgment of the proper length; you now tie the wings on the reverse way at the end of the shank, with two or three rolls of the silk, give a running knot over it, and clip off the refuse ends of the roots of the feather; now before you form the body or tie on the hackle, turn the wings up in their place with the thumb nail of the right, and divide them in equal parts with a needle, draw the silk in and out between them, take a turn or two over the roots to keep them firmly in their place, and fasten with a running knot behind them next your left; then tie on the hackle, to suit the size, by the root (the soft flue previously picked off), close to the wings on its back, and give a knot over it, take the hackle by the point in your pliers, and roll it over the shank close under the wings two or three times on its side, keeping the outside of it next the wings, then draw it (the hackle) right through them, let the pliers hang with the point of the hackle in them at the head, and take two turns of the tying silk over it, fasten on the end of the shank which was left a little bare, cut off the silk and hackle points, give another knot or so to secure it before so doing, and lay on a little varnish at the head; now tie on a piece of fine tying silk opposite the barb on the shank, take two fibres of a mallard feather and tie them on about three-eighths of an inch long for tail, to extend over the bend of the hook, and with one knot tie on a piece of fine floss silk about three inches long to rib the fly; mix a little of the hare fur with yellow mohair, and draw a small quantity of it out of the lump with the right hand, take the hook by the bend in your left, lay the silk and hair over the end of the third finger, the hook being held in, twist the silk and hair together and roll it finely to the shoulder, give a running knot or two with the silk close to the hackle, take care to have a little more of the fur next the shoulder to make the body nicely tapered; you may continue to make the body from where you rolled on the hackle first, and fasten at the tail, and roll the hackle over it if the fly is to be of a long description; tail your fly, and tip it with tinsel, and with two running knots finish opposite the barb, at this point before you finish, wax your silk well, and touch with your varnish pencil: if there are any fibres of the hackle or of the wing, or the hair standing in a wrong direction, clip it off with your scissars, and your fly is completed. You may tie on floss silk or peacock's harl for the body the same as the mohair; and you can perceive that you may finish at the tail or at the shoulder, according to fancy—do not lose sight of this plan.