90 SALMON FLIES 



you can then safely pronounce it sound. 

 Except in the smallest sizes, it should not be 

 possible actually to break a hook when sub- 

 jecting it to this test. 



Having satisfied yourself as to these require- 

 ments, it will be well to study the free end of 

 the shank to see that it tapers off evenly and 

 roundly. If it has not been so made by the 

 hook manufacturers, it should be done by your- 

 self with the aid of a keen file. This may 

 appear at first sight a rather needless refine- 

 ment, but I can assure the reader that it 

 enormously facilitates the production of a neat 

 small head to the fly (an undoubted advantage 

 practically, and a hall-mark of a high-class 

 work), and I am inclined to think that it 

 achieves a sound mechanical principle by 

 making the transition between the soft pliable 

 gut to the hard rigid steel as gradual as pos- 

 sible. 



It should be an invariable rule with the fly- 

 dresser to examine, test, and prepare a hook, 

 as indicated in the two preceding paragraphs, 

 before beginning any work upon it. 



Having thus carefully selected the hook, 

 choose a piece of twisted gut of a thickness 



