66 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



/ 



being done, cut away the end of your towght, and fasten it, and 

 then take your dubbing, which is to make the body of your fly, 

 as much as you think convenient, and holding it lightly with 

 your hook betwixt the finger and thumb of your left hand, take 

 your silk with the right, and twisting it betwixt the finger and 

 thumb of that hand, the dubbing will spin itself about the silk, 

 which, when it has done, whip it about the armed hook back- 

 ward, till you come to the setting on of the wings ; and then take 

 the feather for the wings, and divide it equally into two parts, 

 and turn them back towards the bend of the hook, the one on the 

 one side and the other on the other of the shank, holding them 

 fast in that posture betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of your left 

 hand ; which done, warp them so down as to stand, and slope to- 

 wards the bend of the hook ; and having warped up to the end 

 of the shank, hold the fly fast betwixt the finger and thumb of 

 your left hand, and then take the silk betwixt the finger and 

 thumb of your right hand, and where the warping ends, pinch or 

 nip it with your thumb-nail against your finger, and strip away 

 the remainder of your dubbing from the silk, and then with the 

 bare silk whip it once or twice about, make the wings to stand in 

 due order, fasten, and cut it off; after which, with the point of a 

 needle, raise up the dubbing gently from the warp, twitch off* the 

 superfluous hairs of your dubbing, leave the wings of an equal 

 lenc^th, — your fly will never else swim true, — and the work is 

 done.* And this way of making a fly, which is certainly the 



* These directions are mainly the same with those given by the best 

 later works on the subject ; though every artist varies more or less in the 

 details. Every angler, who has the time or any mechanical skill, should 

 learn to make his own flies; one who has neither, must be content to 

 buy what his judi^ment approves as good, or order his flies made by a good 

 hand ; and, notwithstanding the scorn with which some writers affect for 

 flies from the tackle shops, there is not one amateur in a hundred who can 

 make for himself half as good as a skilful manufacturer will supply him 

 with, if he know how to choose them. 



I subjoin another set of plain directions, according to which a very skil- 

 ful brother of the angle renders himself independent of all foreign aid : 

 " Having prepared your materials, place them before you, and decide upon 

 the fly to be made. Straighten the gut, if crooked, with a piece of India 

 rubber. Select a thread of silk of the appropriate color, and wax it with 



