ON MATERIALS. 30 



shaft of the saddle feather of a dark red game 

 cock. 



Grass and split pieces of corn blades, &c., are 

 sometimes convenient materials to use for green 

 bodies, and look uncommonly well. They retain 

 their colour much longer than might be supposed. 

 I once sent the Editor of the Fishing Gazette a fly 

 which I had tied two years before, and which had 

 figured on the cast. The colour of the body, 

 which was of one or other of the materials named, 

 had faded very little indeed. 



Tinsel is used in very large quantities, both for 

 the whole body of the fly and as a ribbing. For 

 the former purpose flat tinsel is employed, and 

 for the latter fine round tinsel is used for small 

 flies, while for large lake flies the flat or oval 

 variety is necessary to give a sufficiently obtrusive 

 effect. I often wonder that tinsels for fly dressing 

 are not made in colours. One would think that 

 red, yellow, blue, and green tinsels would be just 

 the thing for salmon and lake trout flies, and I 

 feel sure that they would also be useful for such 

 of the small trout flies as have specially bright 

 bodies. We need not, however, be at a loss for a 

 substitute, as there is a method of making a 

 bright-bodied trout fly, which might well be con- 

 sidered an improvement on the coloured tinsel 

 idea in every respect except that of simplicity. 

 The idea was given me when I was a beginner in 

 fly dressing by a friend who had found it very 

 successful, and since then I have likewise proved 

 its utility on many occasions. The method was 

 as follows : First to lay a foundation of very fine 

 flat tinsel over the body, and then to cover it 

 sparingly with floss silk or wool of the proper 

 colour. In this way, and with the use of the 

 transparent, quill-membrane wings, I have made 

 some of the best green and yellow midges that 

 I have ever seen. 



