A PALMER : THE BODY. 457 



a dubbing needle, which last should be a stout needle, 

 fixed in a handle like a brad-awl, and with a rounded blunt 

 point, so as not to cut the silk when used to pick out the 

 fibres of dubbing. 



The easiest fly to dress is, of course, the simple palmer. 

 Suppose we take the common red palmer. Choose hook 

 and gut ; lash on the gut with the finest and strongest silk 

 you can procure in the ordinary way, only do not begin 

 quite at the head or end of the hook, leave space enough 

 for two or three turns of the silk bare of lashing in order 

 to finish the fly off at ; having lashed on the gut down 

 towards the bend, take either a piece of crewel or silk, or 

 even two or three (according as you require the substance 

 of the fly to be) peacock's or ostrich herls, break off the 

 weak points, lay the herls together, and tie the ends in a 

 mass on to the bend of the hook (see Plate XIV. fig. 1, 

 adjoining); then select a hackle from the neck of a red cock 

 choose a two-year-old cock in preference to a young one, 

 as his colours will be better and his feathers stronger. As 

 your fly is to be larger or smaller, and you need the fibre 

 to be longer or shorter, so you will choose one nearer to or 

 farther from the head ; having settled this, prepare the 

 hackle by snipping a little bit off on each side near the 

 tip (see Plate XIV. fig. 10), so that the fibres may not 

 be tied in. Then comes the question whether you desire 

 your palmer to be dressed with hackle all over from 

 head to tail, whether it shall be dressed half-way down, or 

 only at the shoulder of the fly. If the hackle is to go from 

 tail to head, it is tied on at the same time as the herl. 

 If not, then the silk must be warped up from the tail to 

 the required spot; and having tied on the tip of the hackle, 

 you must carry the silk on to the shoulder of the fly, and 

 fix it with a half hitch. 1 Then take hold of the peacock's 



1 This is one way, and the one commonly adopted. My own plan, how- 

 ever, is to lash in the tip of the hackle while J am tying the hook to the gut, 



