154 TROUT LORE 



elsewhere said, "You never know what a trout 

 wants." 



I have created temporary flies out of thread, 

 green grass, and flower petals. From a raveled 

 bit of red handkerchief I have more than once 

 fashioned a killing fly. Why, you can make a 

 very creditable white miller from the fuzzy bark 

 of a white birch. The common barnyard fowls 

 turkeys, guinea hens, ducks, pigeons all these 

 will supply feathers. If you do not hunt ducks 

 and have a friend who does, cultivate him: it will 

 be worth your while. I have made a trout 

 "buck-tail" out of hairs from a gray squirrel's 

 caudal appendage. I might write of makeshift 

 material for an hour and not mention all of the 

 material that you can press into service. "If 

 needs must, needs can." 



So I have lightly touched this matter, seeking 

 only to give you a smattering of knowledge, but 

 enough to serve should you come up against a 

 day when your fly-book fails to meet the needs 

 of the hour, the trout rising to something other 

 than you possess. If, as has been more than 

 once asserted, "necessity is the mother of inven- 

 tion," then the angler can always discover fly- 

 material which he can press into service for the 

 time being. Let me urge upon you, if you de- 



