The Compleat ^Angler 



for the sight of any shade amazes the fish, and spoils your sport of 

 which you must take a great care. 



In the middle of March (till which time a man should not, in 

 honesty, catch a trout), or in April, if the weather be dark, or a little 

 windy or cloudy, the best fishing is with the palmer-worm, of which 

 I last spoke to you ; but of these there be divers kinds, or at 

 least of divers colours ; these and the May-fly are the ground of all 

 fly-angling, which are to be thus made : 



First, you must arm your hook with the line in the inside of it, 

 then take your scissors, and cut so much of a brown mallard's feather, 

 as in your own reason will make the wings of it, you having withal 

 regard to the bigness or littleness of your hook ; then lay the outmost 

 part of your feather next to your hook, then the point of your 

 feather next the shank of your hook ; and having done so, whip it 

 three or four times about the hook with the same silk with which 

 your hook was armed ; and, having made the silk fast, take the 

 hackle of a cock or capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually 

 better ; take off the one side of the feather, and then take the hackle, 

 silk, or crewel, gold or silver thread, make these fast at the bent of 

 the hook, that is to say, below your arming ; then you must take 

 the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it up to the wings, 

 shifting or still removing your finger, as you turn the silk about the 

 hook; and still looking at every stop or turn, that your gold, or 

 what materials soever you make your fly of, do lie right and neatly ; 

 and if you find they do so, then, when you have made the head, make 

 all fast and then work your hackle up to the head, and make that fast : 

 and then with a needle or pin divide the wing into two, and then 

 with the arming silk whip it about crossways betwixt the wings, and 

 then with your thumb you must turn the point of the feather towards 

 the bent of the hook, and then work three or four times about the 

 shank of the hook, and then view the proportion, and if all be neat 

 and to your liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull 

 capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know this, with a little 

 practice, will help an ingenious angler in a good degree ; but to see 

 a fly made by an artist in that kind is the best teaching to make it 



118 



