CHAPTER IV. 



TO DRESS FLOATING FLIES ON EYED-HOOKS. 



k 



( O a casual observer it does not seem a 

 very difficult task to describe in detail 

 the successive operations of dressing 

 flies, but the fact remains that of the many writers 

 on Angling who have touched on the subject of 

 fly-tying, no one has, as yet, succeeded in giving 

 a description sufficiently lucid to enable the tyro 

 by his own unaided exertions to acquire this art. 

 The methods herein described and figured are 

 such only as have been thoroughly tried by the 

 author, and in many instances exhaustively threshed 

 out by comparing notes copiously with other 

 amateurs. Wherever it has been found by ex- 

 perience that any part of the process has produced 

 doubtful results, or flies which in the continual 

 wear and tear of dry-fly fishing have not proved 

 durable, such faulty modus operandi has been, 

 as far as possible, amended, or, if necessary, re- 

 jected in favour of some improved manipulation. 

 If the fly-tyer is so wedded to the old style of fly, 



