THE ART OF FLY-MAKING. 59/ 



sits properly ; continue down the shank with a half dozen or more 

 turns, and then clip off the root ends of the fibres, which of course 

 are pointing towards the bend of the hook. Your wing- is now 

 secure, with the point or end reversed. Continue wrapping over 

 gut and hook until you come opposite the point of the latter ; then 

 put on your tinsel, clipping off the surplus end, then your dubbing, 

 extending it well up towards the head, and leaving the space to be 

 occupied by the hackle about half as much as that so occupied 

 when tying a fly without wings. Here you fasten in the hackle 

 firmly, winding it on up to the point where you commenced tying 

 on the wing ; secure the end of the hackle with three turns of your 

 wrapping, clipping off the surplus end, then double back the wing 

 into its intended position, take two or three turns over the head or 

 but end, and finish off with the invisible knot, as previously 

 described. 



A quicker way of putting on the wings is, after stroking back 

 the fibres, and bringing them at right angles to the stem of the 

 feather, to double them into the shape of the wing, and then, with 

 a quick jerk, pluck it by the roots from the stem. The wing is 

 then laid on, and the fly proceeded with as just described. The 

 wing should extend backward just so iar that the tip of it comes 

 immediately over the bend of the hook. The fibres of the hackle 

 should hardly be long enough to reach the same place, and the 

 hackle itself should not be more than two-thirds the length of stem 

 required for a hackle or palmer fly. 



One would suppose, before he tried it, that the wing cut or 

 torn from the stem, as described, would be square at the tip end 

 when tied on. A trial will prove that the end will be oval or 

 elliptical, resembling the wings of a natural fly. The learner, of 

 course, will find that in tying back the wing, if the turns of the 

 wrapping silk are too n-ear the but end of the head, the wing will 

 sit too perpendicularly, and that if the turns of the wrapping are 

 too far back it will sit too close to the body. The body in a well 

 proportioned fly extends rather beyond, opposite the point of the 

 hook. If the wing is too long it should be shortened by a vigor- 

 ous pinch of the thumb nail and fore-finger. 



I had forgotten to mention that in making a body of mohair, fur, 

 or pig's wool, the requisite quantity, after a little puUing, is placed 



