84 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



buzzard. The eleventh is the shell-fly, good in mid-July : the 

 body made of greenish wool, lapped about with the herle of a 

 peacock's tail, and the wings made of the wings of the buzzard. 

 The twelfth is the dark drake-fly, good in August: the body 

 made with black wool, lapped about with black silk; his wings 

 are made with the mail of the black drake, with a black head. 

 Thus have you a jury of flies, likely to betray and condemn all 

 the trouts in the river. 



I shall next_giye_you^ some j)ther directions for fly-fishing, 

 such as are giyjen_by Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that 

 hath_spft m"rhjtime * n fishing; but^ I shall doit with a little 

 variation. 



First, let your rod be light, and very gentle ; I take the best 

 to be of two pieces : and let not your line exceed, especially 

 for three or four links next to the hook, I say, not exceed 

 three or four hairs at the most, though you may fish a little 

 stronger above, in the upper part of your line; but if you can 

 attain to angle with one hair, you shall have more rises, and 

 catch more fish. Now you must be sure not to cumber yourself 

 with too long a line, as most do. And before you begin to 

 angle, cast to have the wind on your back; and the sun, if it 

 shines, to be before you ; and to fish down the stream ; and 

 carry the point or top of your rod downward, by which means, 

 the shadow of yourself and rod too will be least offensive to 

 the fish ; for the sight of any shade amazes the fish, and spoils 

 your sport of which you must take a great care. 



In the middle of March, till which time a man should not, 

 in honesty, catch a trout or in April, if the weather be dark, 

 or a little windy or cloudy, the best fishing is with the palmer- 

 worm, of which I last spoke to you ; but of these there be divers 

 kinds, or at least of divers colours; these and the May-fly are 

 the ground of all fly-angling, which are to be thus made : 



First, you must arm your hook with the line in the inside 

 of it, then take your scissors, and cut so much of a brown 

 mallard's feather, as in your own reason will make the wings 

 of it, you having withal regard to the bigness or littleness of 

 your hook ; then lay the outmost part of your feather next to 



