81 TROUT FISHING 



we must mix our red and brown furs, and our 

 red and blue furs, to form reddish-brown and 

 rusty-red bodies. There are extremely marked 

 blues and reds, but there is every shade of 

 difference till they gradually become, as it were, 

 mixed together in one and the same fly. 



I would here remark, before giving directions 

 for tying blue flies, that I do not rely much upon 

 them in January and February; the red and 

 brown flies I have given, I have never found to 

 fail, but the blues are supplementary to your 

 collar, and sometimes useful of these, the rusty 

 I have generally found the best ; I might give an 

 endless number of receipts for making all varieties 

 of these, but, if the principle of matching the 

 hackle by mixture of different furs is observed, 

 no one will be at a loss to know how to make a 

 rusty-blue fly. 



Take some hare's flax dyed yellow, and some 

 water-rat's flax of a natural colour, and of the 

 roots of the fur of rabbit's flax as much as the 

 two former together; mix well, and with this 

 make your body; and for a hackle select rather 

 a light blue smoky-tinged feather. This fly may 

 be ribbed with straw-coloured silk. On looking, 

 at the body of this fly a greenish tint is seen 

 with the light blue ; this is gained by the addition 

 of the dyed hare's flax; and much variety of 

 shade and colour may be obtained for the bodies 

 by mixing in different proportions the lighter, as 

 olue rabbit's fur, and the darker, as water-rat's, 

 * with various parts of the dyed fur of a hare ; 



