94 FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 



It must also be borne in mind, that the man who can 

 tie a fly fairly can also make or mend very nearly every 

 description of fishing tackle, and is thus rendered quite 

 independent. To those who only fish occasionally and 

 always buy their flies, the best advice I can give is 

 Find out some good fly-tycr, and go to him for your flies ; 

 hut having arrived at the river you intend fishing, procure 

 a, few flies from a local fisherman such as he considers 

 best at that season, and send them off to your own man 

 telling him to dress you some like them ; for the flies you 

 get from the local professional will, in all probability, be 

 tied on wretched gut. 



But a still better plan than this (although I give the 

 advice) is, before you start on your fishing expedition, to 

 have some of all the flies for the particular month or 

 months in which- you are going to fish tied exactly after 

 the dressings given for them in this book. I will engage 

 that you find some of them on the water ivhcrever the 

 river you are bound for may be situated, and that they 

 will kill quite as well, if not better, than any that local 

 fishermen can supply you with. 



I will now try to give a few hints to those who make, 

 or wish to make, their own flies. 



Flies made by amateurs for their own use last much 



