TO DRESS TROUT FLIES 329 



ing it over the hackle the hackle is bound on very securely, 

 indeed, which if it be a weak one is very advantageous. 



As various materials are used for the bodies or dubbing 

 of trout flies, different methods of applying them must be 

 adopted. Where herl, or quill, or silk is used, the process 

 is tolerably simple ; but fur of some kind as hare's ear, 

 water-rat's or moles's fur, etc. is occasionally used, and 

 when this is the case, the following plan is adopted : Pick 

 out as much fur as is required ; break it up and pull it well to 

 mix it thoroughly ; distribute it in a little row or heap along 

 the palm of the hand ; then rub it backwards and forwards 

 between the hands, or with two fingers, until it hangs together 

 in something like consistency (see Plate XXI, Fig. 14). Then, 

 the silk being well waxed, lay the fur along it, and twirl the silk 

 between the finger and thumb, so as to twist the dubbing 

 round it and incorporate it with the silk (Fig. 13). Wind the 

 dubbing on as high up the hook as may be required ; then, 

 detaching and pulling off any surplus dubbing, finish the silk 

 off in the usual way and touch with varnish. With the dubbing 

 needle pick out the stray hairs and such of the fur as may seem 

 superfluous, trimming off with a keen pair of scissors (taking 

 care in these rather delicate processes not to sever the silken 

 thread), until the body is satisfactory in its proportions. When 

 fur dubbing is used, the silk is often apt to get too frayed for 

 tying off the hackle and wing, and some difficulty is experi- 

 enced in tying in the tip of the hackle. The latter process can, 

 as I have said, be carried out when lashing the gut on, so as to 

 avoid the needless return of the silk up towards the head of the 

 fly. I prefer this plan myself. The dubbing can then be wound 

 on, the single thread tied off, the hackle wound over it, the 

 same thread tying off the hackle and wing afterwards. But 

 such as may prefer it can use a double thread, by commencing 

 to lap on the gut in the middle of the silk, beginning with a 

 half hitch, and leaving half the silk hanging down at the 

 head, and so wind on to the tail with the other half (see Plate 

 XXI, Fig. 7) the tail thread being used to work the dubbing, 

 while the upper thread ties off the hackle and wings. This is 

 certainly the safest plan should the dubbing thread fray 

 at all. 



There are some feathers used as hackles which in their 

 natural state would be too thick in the quill and heavy in 

 the fibre for a delicate trout fly, as grouse and woodcock 

 hackles, etc. These are, like the hackles in some instances, as I 



