108 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



thread, make these fast at the bent of the hook, that 

 is to say, below your arming ; then you must take the 

 hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it up to the 

 wings, shifting or still removing your finger, as you 

 turn the silk about the hook ; and still looking at every 

 stop or turn, that your gold, or what materials soever 

 you make your fly of do lie right and neatly ; and if 

 you find they do so, then, when you have made the head, 

 make all fast ; and then work your hackle up to the 

 head, and make that fast : and then with a needle or 

 pin divide the wing into two, and then with the arming 

 silk whip it about crossways betwixt the wings, and 

 then with your thumb you must turn the point of the 

 feather towards the bent of the hook, and then work 

 three or four times about the shank of the hook, and then 

 view the proportion, and if all be neat and to your liking, 

 fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man 

 of a dull capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I 

 know, this, with a little practice, will help an ingenious 

 angler in a good degree ; but to see a fly made by an 

 artist in that kind, is the best teaching to make it. And 

 then an ingenious angler may walk by the river and 

 mark what flies fall on the water that day, and catch one 

 of them, if he sees the trouts leap at a fly of that kind ; 

 and then having always hooks ready hung with him, 

 and having a bag also always with him, with bear's 

 hair, or the hair of a brown or sad-coloured heifer, hackles 

 of a cock or capon, several coloured silk and crewel 

 to make the body of the fly, the feathers of a drake's 

 head, black or brown sheep's wool, or hog's wool or 

 hair, thread of gold and of silver ; silk of several colours 

 (especially sad-coloured), to make the fly's head : and 

 there be also other coloured feathers, both of little birds 

 and of speckled fowl : I say, having those with him 

 in a bag, and trying to make a fly, though he miss at 



