ON FLY MAKING. 



CHAPTER XL 



ON FLY MAKING. 



FLIES FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING FISHING ; THE ADVISABILITY 

 OF COPYING NATURE; UP-WINGED AND FLAT-WINGED 

 ARTIFICIALS ; DRESSINGS FOR THE DUNS, BROWNS, MAY 



FLIES, OR DRAKES; FLAT- WINGED WATER FLIES; LAND 

 FLEES ; HOW TO DRESS A HACKLE FLY, PALMER, ETC. ; SAL- 

 MON FLIES. 



TROUT AND GRAYLING FLIES. A really solid advan- 

 tage the amateur fly-maker enjoys is his ever available 

 ability to produce copies of any special insect the fish 

 may just then be regaling themselves upon, when other 

 lures fail to meet with due appreciation. Trout are often 

 most tantalizingly fastidious; and though occasionally, 

 at rare intervals, they are to be taken by almost anything 

 in the shape of a fly, it is merely a reckless spirit of wan- 

 tonness that is displayed, in which case sport will prove 

 but indifferent, the fish in reality being merely playing 

 and not feeding. Trout will take down almost any- 

 thing when in this mood ; bits of leaves, twigs, and 

 other floating atoms, we have repeatedly seen them 

 close their teeth upon, when taking observations from 

 the chinks of a wooden foot bridge; but these float- 

 ing substances we noted invariably rose to the surface 

 almost immediately. But when, on the other hand, 

 there are myriads of any particular fly out, the thorough 

 earnestness displayed by the feeding fish, as they eagerly 

 absorb the abundance of food thus presented upon the 

 surface of their native element, bears a marked contrast 

 to their former demeanor ; and when the angler happens 

 not to possess an imitation thereof to present, in nine 

 hundred and ninety-nine instances out of a thousand, 



