GENERAL SALMON FLIES 253 



The Candlestick Maker. This is a fly to light the salmon to 

 bed with. I dressed one as a whim some years since, and sent 

 it to a friend, who reported favourably of it to me ; since then 

 it has done useful service. The body, for the lower half, is black 

 silk ; the upper, black pig's wool, very bushy towards the 

 shoulder, and picked out at the breast ; hackle, golden-olive, 

 with claret at the shoulder ; tinsel, broad silver ; tail, scarlet 

 ibis, and wood duck ; wing, five or six toppings with doubled 

 jungle cock on either side. At dusk, this fly will often show the 

 salmon the way upstairs, when others will fail. 



The Childers (Farlow's). This is another excellent general 

 fly. It is a slaughterer on the Thurso, the Naver, the Helms- 

 dale, and the Brora. Tag, gold twist and golden-coloured floss ; 

 tail, a topping, some teal, and tippet ; body, yellow, orange, 

 and dark red (somewhat of a lake) pig's wool, broad gold 

 tinsel ; hackle, dark red claret and light blue on the shoulder ; 

 wing, a good lump of whitish tipped dark turkey, and strips of 

 bustard, and gold pheasant tail over it, mixed with slices of 

 blue, pale red, orange, and yellow swan ; head, black. 



The last four flies are dressed of various sizes to suit the 

 water. 



The Claret* Tag, gold twist and gold floss ; tail, a topping, 

 and slips of blue and red macaw ; butt, black ostrich, two 

 turns ; body, three of orange floss, medium reddish claret pig's 

 wool, stoutish gold thread, a light reddish claret hackle, com- 

 mencing about half-way down the body, with a couple of turns 

 of black hackle at shoulder ; under wing, a tippet feather, and 

 over it mixed fibres of gold pheasant tail, turkey, bustard, and 

 peacock, fibres of green and red parrot thrown in, ribs, blue 

 macaw, and one topping over all ; black head. This fly may 

 be varied by varying the shade of the claret, which may be from 

 light red to dark purple claret, the wing being sobered down 

 as the fly is made darker. It is a very useful fly, and a general 

 favourite. It may be made of almost any size from 4 to 10, or 

 ii even. It is good for sea trout. 



The Guinea Hen. This is a specimen of a trimmed fly; 

 i.e. the hackle is trimmed or clipped on the breast, whilst 

 it is left long and full on the back in order to form a 

 part of the wing. In the illustration it might with ad- 



* I call this a claret. I hardly know what would be the proper term. 

 Some might call it a fiery brown, but having the fate of Martin Kelly before 

 me, I eschew Fiery Browns. To my view of the case there are two clarets, 

 one in which the red tinge, and the other in which the blue or purple pre- 

 dominate. I shall endeavour to distinguish them thus. F. F. 



