94 The Complete Angler 



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 arm- 

 ing silk, whip it about cross-ways 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 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 first, yet shall he at last hit 

 it better, even to such a perfection as none can well 

 teach him. And if he hit to make his fly right, and 

 have the luck to hit, also, where there is store of 

 Trouts, a dark day, and a right wind, he will catch 



