244 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART n. 



venience or two, or three, that have made me almost weary of 

 that way ; of which one is, that, without dispute, they are not so 

 strong open as twisted ;* another, that they are not, easily, to be 

 fastened of so exact an equal length in the arming that the one 

 will not cause the other to bag, by which means a man has but 

 one hair upon the matter to trust to ; and the last is, that these 

 loose flying hairs are not only more apt to catch upon every twig 

 or bent they meet with, but, moreover, the hook, in falling upon 

 the water, will, very often, rebound and fly back betwixt the hairs, 

 and there stick (which, in a rough water especially, is not pre- 

 sently to be discerned by the angler) so as the point of the hook 

 shall stand reversed ; by which means your fly swims backward, 

 makes a much greater circle in the water and till taken home to 

 you and set right, will never raise any fish, or if it should, I am 

 sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none.f 



Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, the 

 length of your rod, and line, and all, I am next to teach you how 

 to make a fly ; and, afterwards, of what dubbing you are to make 

 the several flies I shall hereafter name to you. 



In making a fly, then, which is not a hackle or palmer fly 

 (for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have occasion to 

 speak every month in the year), you are, first, to hold your hook 

 fast betwixt the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, with the 

 back of the shank upwards, and the point towards your fingers' 

 ends ; then take a strong small silk of the colour of the fly you 

 intend to make, wax it well with wax of the same colour too, to 

 which end you are always, by the way, to have wax of all colours 

 about you, and draw it betwixt your finger and thumb to the head 

 of the shank ; and then whip it twice or thrice about the bare 

 hook, which, you must know, is done, both to prevent slipping, 

 and also that the shank of the hook may not cut the hairs of your 

 towght, which sometimes it will otherwise do. Which being 

 done, take your line, and draw it likewise betwixt your finger and 

 thumb, holding the hook so fast as only to suffer it to pass by, 

 until you have the knot of your towght almost to the middle of 

 the shank of your hook, on the inside of it ; then whip your silk 

 twice or thrice about both hook and line as hard as the strength 

 of the silk will permit. Which being done, strip the feather for 

 the wings proportionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that 



* In the original the words are twisted as open, contrary to what is evidently, from 

 the connection, the Author's meaning : the Editor has therefore transposed the words. 



t This, and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are effectually 

 avoided by the use of a fine grass, or gut, of about half a yard long, next the hook. 



