HOW TO TIE FLIES 



FOR 



TROUT AND GRAYLING FISHING, 



INTKODUCTIOK 



IT is, perhaps, unnecessary that I should here 

 dwell on the advantages which a knowledge of fly 

 dressing gives to the angler, since it is to be 

 expected that they are already known and felt 

 by those who read these lines. At the same time 

 such a course seems natural, and with the 

 reader's pardon its adoption gets me out of 

 the difficulty of knowing how to open up my 

 subject. 



Every angler for trout will admit that the 

 qualities which go to make one successful in his 

 craft are judgment, skill, and knowledge of the 

 trout's habits and powers, and of the insects on 

 which he feeds ; and are not these the very 

 qualities which go to make a successful fly 

 dresser, and which are developed in the practice 

 of the art P It is true that fly fishing and fly 

 dressing each require a fair amount of manipula- 

 tive skill proper to themselves ; but they are at 

 least so closely connected that a man, with some 

 practical knowledge of the one, will have many 

 advantages on his side when entering on the 

 other not only utilitarian advantages, either, 

 B 



