The Compleat ^Angler 



moreover, the hook, in falling upon the water, will, very often, re- 

 bound and fly back betwixt the hairs, and there stick (which, in a 

 rough water especially, is not presently 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. 



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 

 fore-finger and thumb of your left hand, with the back of the shank 

 upwards, and the point towards your finger's end ; 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 

 side downwards which grew uppermost before, upon the back of the 

 hook, leaving so much only as to serve for the length of the wing of 

 the point of the plume, lying reversed from the end of the shank 

 upwards ; then whip your silk twice or thrice about the root-end of 

 the feather, hook, and towght ; which being done, clip off" the root- 



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