THE MAKING OF AN ARTIFICIAL FLY 



varies considerably with each individual. No two 

 persons tie alike; no two seem to dress a certain fly 

 the same, and I venture to assume that of a number 

 of fly-dressers copying the natural insect, nearly 

 all would go about it in a different way, and would 

 have an entirely different result. At the age of 

 five — that is fifty years ago — I began under my 

 father's tuition to copy nature ; and I am still at it. 

 That is why an artist has no reason to balk at copy- 

 ing a simple, though very beautiful, insect. I 

 asked six amateur fly-dressers to make artificials 

 from my colored drawings of the natural insects 

 (which I had taken the greatest pains to depict in 

 the attitude they most generally assume). All six 

 declined to do it. They said, "We must have an 

 artificial fly for a pattern; not a picture." 



So to learn the art of fly-dressing, I suggest the 

 amateur to do as I did: find out by practical ex- 

 perience the most effective way, the quickest and 

 easiest way. Most of the amateurs claim their 

 method the only right one. Yet some tie on wings 

 first and body afterward. I found it much more 

 simple and convenient to make the body first, then 

 tie on the wings; and finish up by putting on the 

 hackle. I have previously stated that there are no 

 rockbound rules; each one works out, or blunders 

 out, his own method. 



Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of 

 bodies : a fat body that needs a foundation to thicken 



115 



