CHAPTER X 



SALMON FLIES 

 List of Salmon Flies General Flies List of Flies for Scotch Rivers 



ONE of the most difficult things in tying flies from 

 description is to hit off the right shade of colour. I 

 have done my best to overcome this difficulty in 

 point of description, but, more or less, it must 

 always exist, and the fly tyer must not be angry with me if 

 I find it unable, out of twenty shades of green, for example, 

 to describe in words any particular shade beyond the possibility 

 of a mistake. 



The component parts of a salmon fly are variously named 

 by different writers, and I have therefore, to avoid mistakes, 

 at Plate IX, Fig. 8, page 211, given a figure of a salmon fly, 

 in which each part is lettered and named according to the 

 part indicated, as follows : a the tag ; b the tail ; c the butt ; 

 d the tinsel ; e the body ; / the hackle ; g the shoulder hackle ; 

 h the under wing ; i the upper wing ; j the cheek ; k the head ; 

 I loop. 



I have been many years collecting this list of flies, of the 

 majority of which I have brought patterns away from the 

 rivers themselves, so that they are descriptions of the actual 

 flies used on the rivers by the habitues thereof. When these 

 have been collected long since, I have verified them sub- 

 sequently by reference to old friends and persons still living 

 on the rivers. When I have been able to get them, I have 

 obtained other patterns from well-known fly tyers or professors 

 of the art who dwell on the banks of their favourite streams. 

 Many acts of kindness and liberality have I to be thankful 

 for in this respect, and to all those gentlemen who have lent 

 me any assistance I desire here to offer my very sincerest 

 and warmest thanks. They have assisted in a good and use- 

 ful work, as the description of the various flies employed for 

 each separate river of any note in the United Kingdom has 



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