72 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



ViAT. No, I would I had ; we would not have parted so. Look 

 you, there was another ; this is an excellent fly. 



Pisc. That fly, I am sure, would kill fish, if the day were 

 right ; but they only chew at it, I see, and will not take it.* 

 Come, Sir, let us return back to the fishing-house ; this still 

 water, I see, will not do our business to-day : you shall now, if 

 you please, make a fly yourself, and try what you can do in the 

 streams with that ; and I know a trout taken with a fly of your 

 own making, will please you better than twenty with one of 

 mine. Give me that bag again, Sirrah : look you. Sir, here is a 

 hook, towght, silk, and a feather for the wings ; be doing with 

 those, and I will look you out a dubbing that I think will do. 



ViAT. This is a very little hook. 



Pisc. That may serve to inform you, that it is for a very little 

 fly, and you must make your wings accordingly ; for as the case 

 stands, it must be a little fly, and a very little one too, that must 

 do your business. Well said ! believe me you shift your fingers 

 very handsomely ; I doubt I have taken upon me to teach my 

 master. So here's your dubbing now. 



ViAT. This dubbing is very black. 



Pisc. It appears so in hand ; but step to the door and hold it 

 up betwixt your eye and the sun, and it will appear a shining 

 red : let me tell you, never a man in England can discern the 

 true color of a dubbing any way but that, and therefore choose 

 always to make your flies on such a bright sunshine day as this, 

 which also you may the better do, because it is worth nothing to 

 fish in : here, put it on, and be sure to make the body of your 

 fly as slender as you can. Very good ! Upon my word you 

 have made a marvellous handsome fly. 



ViAT. I am very glad to hear it ; it is the first that ever I 

 made of this kind in my life. 



Pisc. Away, away ! you are a doctor at it : but I will not 

 commend you too much, lest I make you proud. Come, put it 

 on, and you shall now go downward to some streams betwixt the 



* When a fish is thus observed to play, as it were, with the fly, I think 

 he is probably doubtful of its smell ; and I have often succeeded in making 

 them bite in such cases, by putting a cadis bait, or other insect on the fly 

 hook. — Rennie. 



