22 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



Salmon Flies, tells you to take the twist out of 

 your doubled tying silk before using it. Take 

 a few close turns of the tying silk round the 

 line; then lay your line on the inside of your 

 hook, and starting at the end of the hook fasten 

 on the line two thirds of the way up to the 

 bend ; then turn back the waste end of your line 

 and for the last third of the way lash it on 

 double, and finish off round the shank of the 

 hook with the well-known whip finish and draw 

 tight. 



These directions for making tackle have been 

 given at length in order to show their excel- 

 lence. Not only are they excellent; they are 

 modern. The casual reader, misled by the 

 archaic English in which the Treatise is 

 written, and above all by some of the clumsy 

 plates with which it is embellished, especially 

 the frontispiece and that of the rod, may think 

 that the practical part of the book is worthless. 

 This is quite untrue : the rod, which in the 

 picture looks like an ungainly pole, is really 

 light and flexible : a hollow butt, a springy 

 middle joint of hazel, and a light yet tough 

 top make up something which would throw a 

 fly uncommonly well.* 



It is necessary to understand this, if we are 

 to form a picture of the time. The fisherman 

 cannot practise the refinements of his craft 

 unless properly equipped, and, save in one 



*This was first pointed out by Mr. R. B. Marston in 

 Walton and the Earlier Fishing Writers. (1894). 



