96 FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



may think this is carried to an extreme, but we 

 have met anglers using flies with sufficient dub- 

 bing on them to have made body for half-a-dozen 

 flies, each fly more killing than the original ; and 

 as a last advice upon flies, we advise all anglers to 

 use them very light. The spider is made rather 

 more bushy than is advisable at first, as the trout's 

 teeth would otherwise tear it away too fast. After 

 capturing a dozen trout it will be spare enough. 



It is exceedingly difficult by means of written 

 instructions to make fly-dressing intelligible to the 

 reader ; a few lessons would do more than a whole 

 volume of instructions. 



It is very difficult to dress flies neatly, and 

 unless anglers have plenty of time to devote to it, 

 they would act wisely in purchasing their flies 

 from professional dressers, who will make them to 

 any pattern ; but anglers should see that they are 

 dressed to pattern. Since the first edition was 

 published, our friends have shown us flies which 

 they bought as being the kind we recommended, 

 and as being tied on fine gut, but which were the 

 identical bushy flies which we have devoted so 

 many pages to warn anglers against; and as for 

 the gut, it was so thick and coarse as to preclude 

 the possibility of success in anything like fine 

 fishing. All the knowledge of the habits of the 

 trout, all the skill, all the energy, possessed by the 

 most accomplished angler, are merely thrown 

 away in the use of such tackle ; no angler, not 



