THE MAKING OF AN ARTIFICIAL FLY 



strength, and artistic finish by the use of the tying 

 silk and in the winding up or finishing knot. Con- 

 siderable deftness in cutting a neat, well-shaped 

 wing, and a certain delicacy of touch in fashioning 

 various shapes and forms of the body are required ; 

 and those who happen to have thin, pliable finger- 

 ends have quite some advantage. The reason girls 

 are best fitted to make flies is that their fingers are 

 more apt to be long and thin. 



The amateur fly-dresser should first read and 

 study some of the excellent books devoted to the 

 subject, the majority of which have been published 

 in England. I learned most from Halford's "Dry 

 Fly Entomology," which gives the different meth- 

 ods of a number of experts. I think that the be- 

 ginner will find in this chapter sufficient informa- 

 tion to make a start, with the aid of the diagram 

 sketches, and then he should work out for himself 

 a method most suited to his own individual need. 



materials: feathers and hackles 



The fly-dresser's first and most important work 

 is to gather and get together a collection of feathers, 

 particularly wing and hackle feathers, the latter 

 being taken from the necks of different breeds of 

 poultry and game birds. Hackles are the stiff 

 feathers employed to imitate the legs of various 

 trout insects. 



There are two ways to gather a collection of 



105 



