448 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



ing the agreeable warmth of the sunbeams, I am disposed to praise it. 

 It makes less splash for one thing than a leaded bait does, and say what 

 we may about the indifference of pike to noise when a nor'-easter is 

 blowing the water into anger, we must not ignore the fact that quietude 

 is necessary on calm late summer and autumn days. Besides this, the fly 

 is a novelty of the first water to fish used only to the common herd of 

 artificialities, and is therefore, when they are not roused to hunger by 

 colder water and exciting winds and frosts, likely to be, and, as I have 

 since proved, indeed is, a lure of a very successful character. Let the 

 angler not disdain a pike fly made as indicated after the gaudiest pos- 

 sible pattern. 



Artificial fly making for the Salmonidce next demands my attention, 

 and although, as I have before remarked, there is great difficulty in 

 giving directions for mechanical work, yet I am sanguine that the 

 painstaking tyro will not find it so difficult a matter to make a 

 decent fly as might be supposed. Perfect neatness and finish cannot of 

 course at first be expected, nor can perfect imitation generally of the 

 natural fly be accomplished without great practice. The numerous 

 beautiful shades of the Ephemera are not matched without considerable 

 knowledge and resource of material. Other insects not comprehended 

 in this class are variously fraught with difficulty in their successful 

 imitation. Nevertheless, the accomplished fly maker is able to sit 

 down by the brookside, and with his little bag of feathers and fur and 

 such other articles as I have previously enumerated, manufacture a 

 complete simulacrum of the fly he has just threshed from the sedges or 

 shaken from the overhanging alders. 



The materials required for fly making are of infinite variety. The 

 dubbing bag should contain, ' ' everything in the world in the way of 

 furs, mohairs, wools, and silks." Of course this is an extravagant 

 direction, but there is no doubt that the greater the variety of material 

 so also the greater the resources of the angler. The beginner need not 

 aim, however, at getting a vast collection together. A few reliable 

 dyes and a little ingenuity will often produce an attractive imitation 

 of the natural insect of fair sport-producing powers. It must not, 

 however, be imagined that a superlatively successful fly only depends 

 on its colour. Material goes a great way, and if the angler expects 

 a sage old trout to keep a rough harsh fly in his mouth even the 

 eighth part of a second, he is greatly mistaken. The softer the fly 

 and the more it resembles its natural prototype in texture the better. 

 For excellence in this particular the fisherman depends considerably on 

 his dubbing bag. 



The feathers used chiefly in constructing the wings of the fly must 



