62 TROUT FISHING 



living colour of such feathers), the root should be 

 nearly black (a little down will always be found 

 close to the root of the feather ; this must always 

 be pulled off, as it does not form a part of what 

 the fisherman terms the hackle it seems an 

 appendage, or perhaps young and undeveloped 

 fibres) ; in fact, in all feathers, excepting very 

 light blues, the root should be the darkest part 

 of the hackle. In dark hackles the tip and 

 extreme edges of the fibres forming the feather, 

 should be darker than the centre. All hackles 

 should be plucked from a cock's neck; hens' 

 hackles are worse than useless in rapid streams ; 

 they have no stiffness, cannot resist the force of 

 the water washing on them, and consequently lie 

 flat along the hook, lose all the little colour they 

 have when dry, and make your fly hook more 

 like a little oval black mass of dirt, than a 

 living insect; few fish would attempt so un- 

 inviting a morsel as this represents. The shape 

 of the feather should be an isosceles triangle, 

 having its base at that end which is inserted into 

 the skin, and its elongated apex slenderly, 

 gradually, and evenly tapering off to a fine 

 point many will be found suddenly endiog in a 

 rounded extremity ; these are not so good, but 

 some of them if of fine colour may be retained. 

 Then the hackle must be stiff and elastic, the 

 fibres standing out independently and boldly 

 from the midrib or stalk of the feather, like so 

 many bristles set each at exactly the same angle. 

 A common mode of trying or examining a 



