4:4 BLAKER'S METHOD. 



say half-way up, put on only as much dubbing as will 

 reach that spot, or, if need be, pull it off, tie in the hackle, 

 and then feed the silk with more dubbing. When the 

 body is long enough, pull off any refuse dubbing, and tie 

 the silk itself with a couple of half hitches ; then your 

 spare end, above alluded to, comes into play to tie off 

 hackles, tinsel, &c., if it be not frayed ; if it is not trust- 

 worthy, a fresh piece of silk must be used. 



In looking over other works which give directions upon 

 salmon fly 6shing, the first work I take into consideration 

 is Blacker's * Fly Making, Angling, and Dyeing.' The 

 flies sold by Blacker were so beautifully tied, and his 

 reputation as a tyer stood so high, that one has a right to 

 expect first-rate directions from such a master; but I 

 confess that I am disappointed in them, and that many of 

 them appear to me not only puzzling but almost imprac- 

 ticable. His * easy way of tying a salmon fly ' is first to 

 tie on the wings the reverse way, and these are afterwards 

 to be turned and tied down the proper way, a process 

 which, if it be not utterly destructive of the wing, is a 

 needlessly bad one. Then the hackle is to be tied in at 

 the but with the dubbing and the tinsel, and these are to 

 be worked down to the tail and tied off, and a tail is then 

 to be tied on. Now, in the first place, what is to hide the 

 tie which ties on the tail ? Nothing ; it must be left 

 exposed. Then a hackle tied in at the but, and worked 

 down by the point, so that the point, which is much the 

 weakest part of the hackle, has the most pulling and 

 chafing. Then this hackle, as well as the dubbing and 

 the tinsel, has to be tied off at the tail, and what is to 

 conceal all that mass of tying off? Even if the tail is put 

 over the top side of it, it can only partially hide it, and a 

 terribly bungling affair a tail so tied on would be, while 

 below there is a perfect mas= of tying exposed, with 

 nothing at all to hide it. Again, if a shorter hackle is to 



